Eastern Bank Sells 882 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Eastern Bank lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 51,768 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 882 shares during the quarter. Eastern Bank’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $14,259,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,237,700,000 after acquiring an additional 283,653 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,144,000 after buying an additional 261,961 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,941,000 after buying an additional 203,951 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after acquiring an additional 195,700 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 158.2% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,521,000 after purchasing an additional 113,230 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of VRSK traded up $6.74 during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $275.37. 644,719 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 875,946. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $282.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $274.62. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.58. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 42.96, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,579 shares of company stock worth $1,000,407 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on VRSK. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

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.