Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by New York State Common Retirement Fund

New York State Common Retirement Fund cut its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 10.7% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 97,431 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 11,700 shares during the period. New York State Common Retirement Fund owned approximately 0.07% of Verisk Analytics worth $28,997,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. Proficio Capital Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 15.2% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 1,432 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $394,000 after buying an additional 189 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 21.8% during the fourth quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 2,280 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $628,000 after purchasing an additional 408 shares in the last quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 10.3% during the fourth quarter. Natixis Advisors LLC now owns 148,296 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $40,845,000 after purchasing an additional 13,810 shares in the last quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.2% during the fourth quarter. Cibc World Markets Corp now owns 95,463 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,293,000 after purchasing an additional 2,991 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Parallel Advisors LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 2,347 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $647,000 after purchasing an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on VRSK. Bank of America began coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $302.40.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $1,630,360.34. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 55,913 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $16,821,985.18. This represents a 8.84% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,525 shares of company stock valued at $8,856,566 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $305.62 on Tuesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $42.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.75, a P/E/G ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $257.59 and a 1 year high of $322.92. The business’s fifty day moving average is $309.51 and its two-hundred day moving average is $295.75. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The company had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.35%.

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.