Los Angeles Capital Management LLC Lowers Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 57.1% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 15,083 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 20,087 shares during the quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,489,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $526,676,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36,332.8% during the first quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,204,468 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $358,474,000 after acquiring an additional 1,201,162 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of 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 valued at $1,435,012,000 after acquiring an additional 392,270 shares in the last quarter. Raiffeisen Bank International AG bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $70,005,000. Finally, BLI Banque de Luxembourg Investments bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $68,908,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,051,406.64. This trade represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total value of $91,164.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 15,765 shares in the company, valued at $4,790,668.20. This trade represents a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,947,730. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.3%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded up $0.87 during trading on Thursday, reaching $298.16. The company had a trading volume of 428,989 shares, compared to its average volume of 855,190. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $257.59 and a 12-month high of $322.92. The stock has a market cap of $41.71 billion, a PE ratio of 43.69, a P/E/G ratio of 3.78 and a beta of 0.86. The business's 50-day moving average is $308.93 and its 200 day moving average is $296.67. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $750.31 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.63 earnings per share. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 26.35%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $302.40.

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.