E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Lowers Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. reduced its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 9.5% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,444 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 152 shares during the quarter. E Fund Management Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $345,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.4% during the 3rd quarter. Cambridge Investment Research Advisors Inc. now owns 9,489 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,242,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.7% during the 3rd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 12,621 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,982,000 after purchasing an additional 333 shares during the last quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.2% during the 3rd quarter. Stratos Wealth Partners LTD. now owns 1,332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $315,000 after acquiring an additional 354 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 9.9% during the 3rd quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 190,473 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $44,997,000 after acquiring an additional 17,106 shares during the period. Finally, Advisor Partners II LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Advisor Partners II LLC now owns 4,770 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,127,000 after acquiring an additional 388 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VRSK. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $0.41 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $244.98. The company had a trading volume of 522,968 shares, compared to its average volume of 902,776. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $212.90 and a 52 week high of $251.98. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $231.47 and a 200 day simple moving average of $236.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.95 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.71, a PEG ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.64%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was 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 owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.