Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Rating Increased to Overweight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. Barclays currently has $275.00 target price on the business services provider’s stock, down from their previous target price of $310.00.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on VRSK. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 target price on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $340.00 to $334.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Rothschild & Co Redburn restated a “sell” rating and issued a $220.00 target price (down previously from $280.00) on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $282.14.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $217.60 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.55. Verisk Analytics has a 1 year low of $196.99 and a 1 year high of $322.92. The stock has a market cap of $30.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 33.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.85. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $249.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $281.01.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.03. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 425.42% and a net margin of 30.42%.The business had revenue of $768.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $776.04 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.67 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.73%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Christopher John Perry acquired 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were purchased at an average price of $259.80 per share, for a total transaction of $259,800.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 1,773 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $460,625.40. This represents a 129.37% increase in their ownership of the stock. The acquisition was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $1,436,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 54,337 shares in the company, valued at $14,399,305. The trade was a 9.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 8,520 shares of company stock worth $2,255,396 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Teacher Retirement System of Texas increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 18.3% during the 3rd quarter. Teacher Retirement System of Texas now owns 104,004 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $26,158,000 after buying an additional 16,061 shares during the period. Northstar Asset Management Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 40.7% during the 3rd quarter. Northstar Asset Management Inc. now owns 27,805 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $6,993,000 after buying an additional 8,042 shares during the period. Rakuten Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth $8,488,000. Vest Financial LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth $232,000. Finally, Sage Mountain Advisors LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 54.3% during the 3rd quarter. Sage Mountain Advisors LLC now owns 1,114 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $280,000 after buying an additional 392 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.