Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund Cuts Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund cut its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 48.9% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 28,099 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 26,901 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $7,574,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Brookstone Capital Management boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.2% during the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 3,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $982,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 19.0% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. boosted 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 valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Ascent Group LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.8% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Finally, Webster Bank N. A. boosted 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 valued at $49,000 after buying an additional 46 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total transaction of $55,476.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $265.67 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $215.32 and a 1 year high of $287.13. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $268.40 and a 200 day moving average of $256.91. The company has a market cap of $37.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.57, a PEG ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. The business had revenue of $716.80 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.45 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.51 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 29.10%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. 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 research note on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $276.69.

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.