Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Position Cut by TBH Global Asset Management LLC

TBH Global Asset Management LLC trimmed its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 14.5% during the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 7,990 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,350 shares during the quarter. TBH Global Asset Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,908,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the third 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 period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $374,530,000. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 211,032 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $2.33 during trading on Friday, hitting $251.58. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 689,799 shares, compared to its average volume of 870,470. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $234.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $237.78. The firm has a market cap of $35.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $215.17 and a 52 week high of $254.14.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 29.10%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,304 shares of company stock valued at $2,648,390 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets lifted 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, May 2nd. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $254.31.

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.