Saiph Capital LLC Lowers Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Key Points

• Saiph Capital LLC has reduced its stake in Verisk Analytics by 35.9%, now owning 1,830 shares valued at approximately $545,000.
• Verisk Analytics reported $1.88 earnings per share for the last quarter, exceeding estimates, with a revenue of $772.60 million, reflecting a 7.8% year-over-year increase.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share, with a dividend yield of 0.7%, payable on September 30th to stockholders of record.

Saiph Capital LLC lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 35.9% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,830 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 1,026 shares during the period. Saiph Capital LLC's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $545,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,980,251,000 after acquiring an additional 239,483 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $669,958,000 after acquiring an additional 596,225 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $508,611,000. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 13.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,639,719 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $451,628,000 after acquiring an additional 197,413 shares in the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,537,613 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $457,624,000 after acquiring an additional 70,571 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective 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. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $305.60.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $3.51 on Thursday, reaching $267.70. 1,452,951 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 904,296. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $259.01 and a 52 week high of $322.92. The company has a 50 day moving average of $297.17 and a 200 day moving average of $296.51. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.40 billion, a PE ratio of 41.25, a PEG ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.53.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. The company's revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is currently 27.73%.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Christopher John Perry purchased 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $259.80 per share, for a total transaction of $259,800.00. Following the purchase, the director owned 1,773 shares of the company's stock, valued at $460,625.40. This represents a 129.37% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the sale, the director owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at $21,051,406.64. The trade was a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,120 shares of company stock worth $7,192,416. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.