New York State Common Retirement Fund Sells 6,049 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

New York State Common Retirement Fund lessened its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 5.3% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 109,131 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 6,049 shares during the quarter. New York State Common Retirement Fund’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $30,058,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after purchasing an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares during the last quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% during the third quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $214,676,000 after purchasing an additional 8,262 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 195,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 332,650 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $91,622,000 after purchasing an additional 1,308 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Barclays downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.11.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, February 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $294.95, for a total transaction of $347,746.05. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,066,180.70. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 1.1 %

VRSK opened at $292.70 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.94. 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 firm’s fifty day moving average price is $282.42 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $276.93. The company has a market capitalization of $41.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.66, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.