Truist Financial Corp Decreases Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Truist Financial Corp trimmed its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 176,491 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 8,689 shares during the period. Truist Financial Corp owned approximately 0.12% of Verisk Analytics worth $42,157,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA raised its holdings in 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 during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during 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 buying an additional 211,032 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 3.8% during 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 buying an additional 182,631 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 131.2% in the third quarter. Federated Hermes Inc. now owns 312,569 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,841,000 after purchasing an additional 177,391 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 22.1% in the third quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 920,719 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $217,511,000 after purchasing an additional 166,656 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $361,499.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 50,973 shares in the company, valued at $12,035,744.76. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $252.00.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $221.14 on Monday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $187.86 and a 1-year high of $251.98. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $232.86 and its 200 day moving average is $236.45. The company has a market cap of $31.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.53, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 0.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The company had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $673.56 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.71%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.05%.

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.