Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. Cuts Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. decreased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.8% in the fourth quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 358,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,990 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $85,695,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Quarry LP bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $27,000. CVA Family Office LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $30,000. Sunbelt Securities Inc. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 67.5% in the 2nd quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. now owns 134 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $30,000 after acquiring an additional 54 shares in the last quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $30,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 49 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, 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 accessible through this link. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, 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 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 stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSK. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price target for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $222.25 on Thursday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $236.30 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $237.36. 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 12 month low of $187.86 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a market cap of $31.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.44 by ($0.04). The business had revenue of $677.20 million for 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 business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.43 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program 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 shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.05%.

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.