Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd Buys 162 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd raised its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.2% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 13,608 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 162 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management Company Ltd’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,250,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the third 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. FMR LLC lifted its holdings 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 worth $1,164,626,000 after acquiring an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 131.2% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,841,000 after buying an additional 177,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $217,511,000 after buying an additional 166,656 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other 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 transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction 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 owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly 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 sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $222.25 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $31.72 billion, a PE ratio of 52.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $187.86 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $234.28 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $236.93.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The company had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.05%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VRSK. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $252.00.

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.