Parkside Financial Bank & Trust Grows Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Parkside Financial Bank & Trust grew its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 72.3% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 1,635 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 686 shares during the quarter. Parkside Financial Bank & Trust’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $391,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the 3rd quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,777,279,000 after buying an additional 392,945 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in 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. FMR LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,929,841 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,164,626,000 after purchasing an additional 182,631 shares during the last quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 131.2% in the 3rd quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,841,000 after purchasing an additional 177,391 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.1% in the 3rd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $217,511,000 after acquiring an additional 166,656 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK traded down $1.77 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $220.48. 199,667 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 865,840. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.79, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 0.78. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $234.28 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $236.93. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its 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). The company had revenue of $677.20 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated 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 shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. 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 0.71%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 37.05%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. 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 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have issued reports on the company. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price objective 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 given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target 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.