Vanguard Group Inc. Boosts Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.5% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 239,483 shares during the quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. owned approximately 0.12% of Verisk Analytics worth $4,980,251,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 966.7% in the 1st quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 128 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after purchasing an additional 116 shares during the period. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 186.7% in the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. 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. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $305.60.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value of $3,649,027.36. Following the sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $98,080.36. Following the transaction, the insider owned 9,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,803,714.34. The trade was a 3.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,120 shares of company stock worth $7,192,416 over the last three months. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $264.52 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 1.53. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $301.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $296.92. The stock has a market cap of $36.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.83. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $260.17 and a one year high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.74 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 27.73%.

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.