Bank of New York Mellon Corp Sells 18,973 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Bank of New York Mellon Corp trimmed its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 2.0% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 925,643 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 18,973 shares during the quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp owned about 0.66% of Verisk Analytics worth $275,490,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the business. Alliancebernstein L.P. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,435,012,000 after acquiring an additional 392,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.6% in the 4th quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after buying an additional 72,045 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after buying an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $455,789,000 after buying an additional 144,599 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.10, for a total transaction of $1,723,783.90. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 56,701 shares of the company's stock, valued at $18,036,588.10. This represents a 8.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $98,080.36. Following the sale, the insider owned 9,319 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,803,714.34. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock worth $8,945,180 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have commented on VRSK shares. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.7%

VRSK stock traded down $2.27 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $305.90. 94,577 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 774,493. The company has a market cap of $42.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.86. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $308.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $294.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $257.59 and a 52 week high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. Verisk Analytics's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.63 EPS. As a group, sell-side 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 disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Shareholders of record on Friday, June 13th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is 26.35%.

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.