Yousif Capital Management LLC Reduces Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Yousif Capital Management LLC decreased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 19,740 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 852 shares during the quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,715,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.4% during the third quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 1,417 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $335,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Wealth Alliance grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 1,147 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $274,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the fourth quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the period. GYL Financial Synergies LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the third quarter. GYL Financial Synergies LLC now owns 6,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,453,000 after buying an additional 50 shares during the period. Finally, Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,490 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $356,000 after buying an additional 52 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VRSK. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price 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 note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $221.14 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $232.86 and a 200-day moving average of $236.57. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $187.86 and a 12-month high of $251.98. The company has a current ratio of 1.05, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The company has a market cap of $31.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.53, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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). Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The company had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $673.56 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.43 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.71%. 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 dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.05%.

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

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other 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 transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of 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 filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 12,140 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.