KBC Group NV Sells 5,231 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

KBC Group NV cut its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 12.0% in the second quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 38,313 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 5,231 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $11,935,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,980,251,000 after buying an additional 239,483 shares in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,235,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,558,067,000 after acquiring an additional 25,010 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $669,958,000 after acquiring an additional 596,225 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter worth $508,611,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.9% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,704,246 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $507,219,000 after purchasing an additional 283,238 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Barclays upgraded Verisk Analytics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $310.00 to $275.00 in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Evercore ISI dropped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $262.00 to $250.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Royal Bank Of Canada lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $314.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $282.14.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Sabra R. Purtill bought 450 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $217.95 per share, with a total value of $98,077.50. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director directly owned 1,327 shares in the company, valued at approximately $289,219.65. The trade was a 51.31% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Jeffrey J. Dailey purchased 500 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 31st. The shares were bought at an average price of $217.03 per share, with a total value of $108,515.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 3,962 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $859,872.86. This represents a 14.44% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase is available in the SEC filing. In the last three months, insiders acquired 1,450 shares of company stock worth $314,663 and sold 7,120 shares worth $1,880,196. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $215.84 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $196.99 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.55. The company has a market cap of $30.08 billion, a PE ratio of 32.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.84. The company’s 50 day moving average is $237.93 and its 200 day moving average is $275.26.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $768.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $776.04 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.42% and a return on equity of 425.42%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.67 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.44%.

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.