Strs Ohio Sells 45,189 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Strs Ohio cut its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 20.3% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 176,914 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 45,189 shares during the quarter. Strs Ohio owned about 0.12% of Verisk Analytics worth $42,257,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 421.9% in the 4th quarter. Fenimore Asset Management Inc. now owns 75,404 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $18,011,000 after purchasing an additional 60,957 shares during the period. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.2% in the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $315,000 after purchasing an additional 354 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $349,000. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 558,840 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $132,020,000 after acquiring an additional 31,855 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 21.9% in the 3rd quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 552,316 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $130,479,000 after acquiring an additional 99,115 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,325 shares of company stock valued at $2,653,839 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 1.31% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded down $0.35 during trading on Monday, reaching $222.18. 1,070,326 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 871,138. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The company has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.77, a PEG ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The firm's 50-day moving average price is $237.39 and its 200 day moving average price is $237.56.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The firm had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.43 EPS. Verisk Analytics's revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an "in-line" rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America cut Verisk Analytics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $252.00.

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.