Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by Mutual of America Capital Management LLC

Mutual of America Capital Management LLC lowered its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 19,478 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 888 shares during the quarter. Mutual of America Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,653,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the 3rd 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 purchasing an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,821,265 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $731,736,000 after buying an additional 49,928 shares during the last quarter. Morgan Stanley grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 248.2% during the 4th quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 3,765,708 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,346,000 after buying an additional 2,684,234 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1,404.8% during the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 1,992,727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $470,762,000 after buying an additional 1,860,298 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $222.18 on Tuesday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $237.39 and a 200-day moving average of $237.56. The firm has a market cap of $31.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.77, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $187.86 and a twelve month high of $251.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85.

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

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.05%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback 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 reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective 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 given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $252.00.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the sale, 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. In the last three months, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.