Forsta AP Fonden Has $15.92 Million Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Forsta AP Fonden raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 18.4% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 53,500 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 8,300 shares during the quarter. Forsta AP Fonden’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $15,923,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Louisbourg Investments Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 966.7% during 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 bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth about $39,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth about $48,000. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 186.7% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This trade represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the insider owned 9,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,803,714.34. This trade represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,120 shares of company stock valued at $7,192,416 over the last three months. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $265.04 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.84, a PEG ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.83. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $300.46 and its 200 day simple moving average is $296.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $260.17 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.74 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 company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently issued reports on VRSK. UBS Group dropped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, 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, August 4th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $305.60.

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.