Victory Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Victory Capital Management Inc. lessened its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.3% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 159,935 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,179 shares during the period. Victory Capital Management Inc. owned approximately 0.11% of Verisk Analytics worth $42,856,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. 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 report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $280.80 on Friday. 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 fifty day moving average of $271.13 and a two-hundred day moving average of $266.05. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.65 billion, a PE ratio of 44.41, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $291.42.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the completion of 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.