Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC Raises Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.4% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 7,483 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 579 shares during the period. Linden Thomas Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,787,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA increased its position 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 during the last quarter. FMR LLC increased its stake 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 acquiring an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.7% during the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,661,558 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $392,526,000 after purchasing an additional 89,920 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.1% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,048,905 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $247,793,000 after purchasing an additional 60,228 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded down $1.18 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $221.07. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 361,722 shares, compared to its average volume of 867,898. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $234.28 and a two-hundred day moving average of $236.93.

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

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.39 dividend. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, 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 in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.