Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Given Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the ten research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, three have assigned a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have covered the stock in the last year is $289.80.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $273.39 on Friday. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $281.92 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $274.32. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a market cap of $38.61 billion, a PE ratio of 42.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth about $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth about $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $50,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.