Amalgamated Bank Sells 1,252 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Amalgamated Bank cut its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.2% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 37,967 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,252 shares during the period. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $9,069,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,777,279,000 after buying an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after acquiring an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $392,526,000 after acquiring an additional 89,920 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,793,000 after purchasing an additional 60,228 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the firm’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 directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total transaction of $361,499.72. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 50,973 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,035,744.76. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.5 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $237.33 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $33.86 billion, a PE ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.89 and a beta of 0.79. The company has a 50-day moving average of $231.42 and a 200 day moving average of $235.99. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $205.70 and a 1-year high of $251.98.

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

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

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.