City Holding Co. Has $1.42 Million Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

City Holding Co. boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.3% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 4,771 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 152 shares during the period. City Holding Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,420,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the company. SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $30,000. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.7% in the 4th quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 747,337 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $205,839,000 after purchasing an additional 53,502 shares during the period. Sycomore Asset Management lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 27.4% in the fourth quarter. Sycomore Asset Management now owns 24,085 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,382,000 after purchasing an additional 5,187 shares in the last quarter. Allworth Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 1,619 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $452,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the period. Finally, Savant Capital LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 1,726 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $475,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Bank of America initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an “underperform” rating and a $280.00 price target for the company. UBS Group increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $302.40.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $285.86, for a total transaction of $337,028.94. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,940,865.96. This trade represents a 7.88% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $318.10, for a total value of $1,723,783.90. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 56,701 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,036,588.10. The trade was a 8.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,603 shares of company stock valued at $3,904,741. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.3%

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $319.60 on Monday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $257.59 and a 12-month high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $300.68 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $291.73. The stock has a market capitalization of $44.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 49.86, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.87.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $753.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $750.31 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.63 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, June 30th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 13th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 13th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 26.35%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.