National Pension Service Raises Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

National Pension Service grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.0% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 220,921 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,282 shares during the period. National Pension Service owned approximately 0.16% of Verisk Analytics worth $65,751,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the first quarter. Cullen Frost Bankers Inc. now owns 3,175 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $945,000 after acquiring an additional 35 shares in the last quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.1% in the first quarter. Bennett Selby Investments LP now owns 1,208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $359,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Private Trust Co. NA grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 10.2% in the first quarter. Private Trust Co. NA now owns 389 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $116,000 after acquiring an additional 36 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.3% in the first quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 1,177 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $350,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the first quarter. Kirtland Hills Capital Management LLC now owns 3,993 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,170,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently commented on VRSK. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group dropped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $305.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 67,244 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,051,406.64. The trade was a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total transaction of $91,164.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 15,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,790,668.20. This trade represents a 1.87% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,120 shares of company stock valued at $7,192,416 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.3%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $267.70 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 1.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.25, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.83. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $296.12 and a 200 day moving average price of $296.39. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $259.01 and a 52-week high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.74 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 27.73%.

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.