California Public Employees Retirement System Acquires 3,935 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

California Public Employees Retirement System increased its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.5% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 816,223 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,935 shares during the quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System owned approximately 0.56% of Verisk Analytics worth $194,963,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in 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 purchasing an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 211,032 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 177,391 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in 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 buying an additional 166,656 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK traded up $0.31 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $223.48. 64,062 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 861,371. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $234.74 and its 200 day simple moving average is $237.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 53.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. 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, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98.

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

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

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.