Swiss National Bank Has $108.32 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Swiss National Bank lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.6% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The institutional investor owned 453,500 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 12,200 shares during the period. Swiss National Bank’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $108,323,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.4% during the third quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,417 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $335,000 after acquiring an additional 46 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Alliance raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 1,147 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares in the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% in the third quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC now owns 6,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,453,000 after purchasing an additional 50 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,490 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $356,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $12,514,344. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $237.33 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $205.70 and a 1 year high of $251.98. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $231.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $235.99. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The company had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

About Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc provides data analytics and technology solutions to the insurance markets in the United States and internationally. It offers policy language, prospective loss costs, policy writing and rating rules, and various underwriting solutions for risk selection and segmentation, pricing, and workflow optimization; property- and auto- specific rating and underwriting information solutions that allows clients to understand, quantify, underwrite, mitigate, and avoid potential loss for risks; catastrophe modeling solutions, which enables companies to identify, quantify, and plan for the financial consequences of catastrophes for use by insurers, reinsurers, intermediaries, financial institutions, and governments.