Mackenzie Financial Corp Reduces Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Mackenzie Financial Corp decreased its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 522,666 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 14,165 shares during the period. Mackenzie Financial Corp’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $140,885,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the business. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 225.5% during the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 205,110 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $48,993,000 after acquiring an additional 142,088 shares in the last quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 64.2% during the 4th quarter. Pinebridge Investments L.P. now owns 8,231 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,966,000 after purchasing an additional 3,219 shares in the last quarter. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth about $698,000. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after buying an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.2% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 362,915 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $85,550,000 after buying an additional 4,147 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total value of $88,743.72. Following the sale, the insider now owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,033,483.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,470 shares in the company, valued at $2,033,483.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total transaction of $55,476.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,408 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently commented on VRSK. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Barclays upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.23.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $264.25 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $269.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $255.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $215.32 and a twelve month high of $287.13. The company has a market capitalization of $37.70 billion, a PE ratio of 49.30, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. The company had revenue of $716.80 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.45 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.51 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Sunday, September 15th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

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.