Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. Cuts Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc. cut its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 66.5% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 17,382 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 34,540 shares during the period. Jacobs Levy Equity Management Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,658,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the 3rd 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 in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 261,961 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in 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 valued at $145,941,000 after purchasing an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 187.1% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,305,000 after buying an additional 111,992 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after buying an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.6 %

VRSK opened at $287.06 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.78, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $277.46 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $271.07. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $296.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 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 value of $286,490.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

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.