Geneva Capital Management LLC Cuts Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Geneva Capital Management LLC lessened its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 3.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 144,683 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,057 shares during the period. Geneva Capital Management LLC owned 0.10% of Verisk Analytics worth $34,559,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,777,279,000 after acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,164,626,000 after acquiring an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 131.2% during the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $73,841,000 after acquiring an additional 177,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.1% during the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $217,511,000 after acquiring an additional 166,656 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI reiterated an "in-line" rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $244.98. The company had a trading volume of 522,915 shares, compared to its average volume of 902,776. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $212.90 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The firm has a market cap of $34.95 billion, a PE ratio of 45.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79. The business's 50 day moving average price is $231.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $236.15. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. Research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were 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 directly owns 51,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.

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