Ensign Peak Advisors Inc Has $66.70 Million Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ensign Peak Advisors Inc trimmed its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 242,174 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 8,196 shares during the quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc owned approximately 0.17% of Verisk Analytics worth $66,702,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $28,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $29,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total value of $88,614.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares in the company, valued at $4,922,507.70. This trade represents a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,937 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,980,456.16. This trade represents a 30.60 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 8,363 shares of company stock worth $2,529,187. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on VRSK. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Bank of America started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price objective for the company. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $298.90.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $309.50 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $43.31 billion, a PE ratio of 48.28, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $244.99 and a 1 year high of $312.82. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $292.29 and a 200 day moving average price of $286.68.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.63 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.35%.

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.