OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd Decreases Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lessened its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 13.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,147 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 484 shares during the period. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $752,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Quarry LP purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the first quarter worth about $27,000. CVA Family Office LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth about $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 67.5% in the second quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 134 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of VRSK opened at $222.52 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $31.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.86, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $187.86 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $235.22 and a 200-day moving average price of $237.16.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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 net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The firm had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.43 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently commented on VRSK shares. Bank of America cut shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was 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 owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.