Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky Sells 1,387 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky trimmed its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 9.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,720 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,387 shares during the quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,039,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $374,530,000. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 90.5% during the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $272,663,000 after acquiring an additional 542,432 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 45.8% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $320,722,000 after acquiring an additional 422,002 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the 3rd 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. Finally, Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 178.5% in the 4th quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 319,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $76,278,000 after purchasing an additional 204,657 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.4 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $268.80 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $215.32 and a 12-month high of $270.38. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $244.27 and its 200 day moving average is $240.54. The company has a market capitalization of $38.35 billion, a PE ratio of 50.15, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.83.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The company had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.29 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

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 buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the 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 $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were 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 owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 9,746 shares of company stock worth $2,285,415. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.