Victory Capital Management Inc. Cuts Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lowered its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 1.9% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 150,537 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 2,980 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned about 0.11% of Verisk Analytics worth $44,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 966.7% during the 1st quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 128 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $38,000 after acquiring an additional 116 shares in the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $39,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth approximately $48,000. Finally, NBC Securities Inc. bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at approximately $60,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 12,937 shares in the company, valued at $3,980,456.16. This trade represents a 30.60% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $98,080.36. Following the sale, the insider owned 9,319 shares in the company, valued at $2,803,714.34. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,947,730. Insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on VRSK. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. Bank of America began coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. Finally, 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $302.40.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK traded down $2.34 during trading on Monday, hitting $299.56. The company's stock had a trading volume of 567,088 shares, compared to its average volume of 779,201. The firm's 50 day moving average price is $309.16 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $296.50. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $257.59 and a 12 month high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 396.08% and a net margin of 33.13%. The firm had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.63 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th were paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics 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.