M&T Bank Corp Reduces Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

M&T Bank Corp trimmed its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.2% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 19,935 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 48 shares during the period. M&T Bank Corp’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $5,341,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at $46,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VRSK. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $285.30 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.51, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The business has a 50-day moving average of $278.96 and a 200 day moving average of $272.16. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 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.