Calamos Advisors LLC Lowers Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Calamos Advisors LLC decreased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 63,368 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 828 shares during the quarter. Calamos Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $15,136,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 10.9% during the 4th quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 346,646 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $82,800,000 after acquiring an additional 34,077 shares during the period. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 64.7% during the 4th quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 359 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $86,000 after acquiring an additional 141 shares in the last quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 142,565 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $34,053,000 after purchasing an additional 5,322 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 20,034 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,785,000 after purchasing an additional 522 shares during the period. Finally, Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank now owns 110,039 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,284,000 after buying an additional 1,581 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following 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 90 days, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK traded down $0.83 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $222.50. The stock had a trading volume of 93,042 shares, compared to its average volume of 865,584. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The company has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a PE ratio of 53.05, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $187.86 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $235.78 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $237.26.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The business had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.43 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

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.