US Bancorp DE Trims Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

US Bancorp DE decreased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 24.7% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 46,204 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 15,178 shares during the quarter. US Bancorp DE’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $10,893,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Smithfield Trust Co increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 727 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $175,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 2.9% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,533 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $361,000 after purchasing an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 25.6% during the fourth quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 221 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $53,000 after purchasing an additional 45 shares during the last quarter. Webster Bank N. A. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 28.4% during the first quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Alliance increased its position in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $257.21.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $376,057.68. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 52,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,066,200. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $376,057.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 52,500 shares in the company, valued at $13,066,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,237 shares of company stock worth $572,739 in the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.3 %

VRSK traded up $3.64 during trading hours on Tuesday, reaching $281.14. 672,336 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 847,093. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $261.36 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $245.09. The company has a market cap of $40.11 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.40, a PEG ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.84. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $281.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.10%.

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.