Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by Blair William & Co. IL

Key Points

• Blair William & Co. IL reduced its stake in Verisk Analytics by 2.0%, now holding approximately 0.27% of the company, worth $114.1 million.
• Insider transactions included CAO David J. Grover selling 5,705 shares, representing a 30.60% decrease in his position, while total insider sales over the last 90 days reached $8.9 million.
• Verisk Analytics announced a $0.45 quarterly dividend, with an annualized yield of 0.7%, and reported 7.8% year-over-year revenue growth in its latest earnings results.

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 2.0% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 383,598 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 7,846 shares during the quarter. Blair William & Co. IL owned approximately 0.27% of Verisk Analytics worth $114,166,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in VRSK. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $11,964,000. Huntington National Bank raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 11.4% during the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,409 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $664,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares in the last quarter. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $490,000. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 7.8% during the fourth quarter. Nicolet Advisory Services LLC now owns 1,320 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $355,000 after purchasing an additional 96 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ExodusPoint Capital Management LP boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 36.5% in the fourth quarter. ExodusPoint Capital Management LP now owns 26,374 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $7,264,000 after purchasing an additional 7,050 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 12,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. The trade was a 30.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $98,080.36. Following the transaction, the insider owned 9,319 shares in the company, valued at $2,803,714.34. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,825 shares of company stock worth $8,947,730 in the last 90 days. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Bank of America initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday. UBS Group reduced their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $304.56.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $271.89 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $259.22 and a 12-month high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.83. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $305.41 and a 200 day simple moving average of $297.41.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The company 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 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

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.

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