New York Life Investment Management LLC Cuts Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

New York Life Investment Management LLC lowered its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.7% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 22,743 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 156 shares during the period. New York Life Investment Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,432,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,777,279,000 after buying an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 131.2% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,841,000 after purchasing an additional 177,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.1% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $217,511,000 after purchasing an additional 166,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have commented on the company. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research 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 company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $237.33 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $231.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $236.03. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $205.70 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98. The company has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.09.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The company had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Profile

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.