Pacer Advisors Inc. Purchases 21,719 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Key Points

• Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. by 63.6%, owning a total of 55,868 shares valued at approximately $16.6 million.
• Several other hedge funds have also made significant adjustments to their holdings, with Korea Investment CORP increasing their stake by 74.1% during the fourth quarter.
• Research analysts have mixed ratings on Verisk Analytics, with price targets ranging from $280 to $335, reflecting a consensus rating of "Hold".

Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 63.6% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 55,868 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 21,719 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc.'s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $16,627,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 72,045 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $455,789,000 after purchasing an additional 144,599 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $1,630,360.34. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 12,937 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,947,730 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 5.0%

VRSK traded down $14.62 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $279.43. 748,263 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 857,171. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a current ratio of 1.27. The company's fifty day moving average price is $307.69 and its 200 day moving average price is $297.39. The company has a market cap of $39.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $257.59 and a one year high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is presently 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.