State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Decreases Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Key Points

• The State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D has reduced its stake in Verisk Analytics by 8.0%, now holding a total of 46,924 shares valued at approximately $13.97 million.
• Verisk Analytics reported quarterly earnings of $1.88 per share, exceeding analyst expectations, with revenue increasing by 7.8% year-over-year to $772.60 million.
• The company has announced a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share, which will be paid on September 30th, representing an annual yield of 0.7%.

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D reduced its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 8.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The fund owned 46,924 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 4,101 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $13,966,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,980,251,000 after buying an additional 239,483 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its stake in 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 during the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter valued at approximately $508,611,000. Northern Trust Corp lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 13.7% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,639,719 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $451,628,000 after purchasing an additional 197,413 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,537,613 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $457,624,000 after purchasing an additional 70,571 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 8th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock 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 note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Four equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $305.60.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.1%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded down $0.16 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $270.85. 1,368,566 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 909,350. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $259.01 and a 1 year high of $322.92. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $293.30 and a 200 day moving average of $296.12. The stock has a market cap of $37.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.76 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results 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. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The business had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. The firm's revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is currently 27.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total transaction of $294,811.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,907 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,147,865.07. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Christopher John Perry purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $259.80 per share, with a total value of $259,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director owned 1,773 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $460,625.40. This represents a 129.37% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,620 shares of company stock valued at $7,862,427. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

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.