Synovus Financial Corp Reduces Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Key Points

• Synovus Financial Corp reduced its position in Verisk Analytics by 20.5%, selling 2,607 shares and holding a total of 10,130 shares worth approximately $3,015,000 after the sale.
• In the first quarter, multiple institutional investors, including Ameriprise Financial and GAMMA Investing, made significant changes to their positions in Verisk Analytics, indicating increased interest in the company.
• Verisk Analytics reported earnings of $1.88 per share for the last quarter, exceeding analysts' estimates, and declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share to be paid on September 30th.

Synovus Financial Corp trimmed its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 20.5% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 10,130 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 2,607 shares during the quarter. Synovus Financial Corp's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,015,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $508,611,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 631.0% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,415,439 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $422,676,000 after purchasing an additional 1,221,798 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36,332.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,204,468 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $358,474,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,162 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $669,958,000 after purchasing an additional 596,225 shares during the period. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 52.7% during the 1st quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,141,005 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $339,586,000 after purchasing an additional 393,668 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. UBS Group decreased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley lifted 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Four analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $305.60.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total value of $294,811.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 78,907 shares in the company, valued at $21,147,865.07. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 25,620 shares of company stock worth $7,862,427 over the last quarter. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded up $1.93 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $268.12. 652,634 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 907,115. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34. The company's 50 day moving average price is $287.67 and its 200 day moving average price is $294.96. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $259.01 and a 12 month high of $322.92.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The firm had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Verisk Analytics Company Profile

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.