Shell Asset Management Co. Boosts Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Shell Asset Management Co. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 70.3% during the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 5,944 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,453 shares during the quarter. Shell Asset Management Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,852,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 225.2% in the first quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 14,919 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,440,000 after purchasing an additional 10,331 shares during the period. Voya Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 24.1% in the first quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 303,480 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $90,076,000 after acquiring an additional 58,954 shares during the period. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $3,860,000. Dakota Wealth Management lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 24.0% in the second quarter. Dakota Wealth Management now owns 21,745 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,774,000 after acquiring an additional 4,206 shares during the period. Finally, Simon Quick Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the first quarter worth about $237,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of VRSK opened at $243.48 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average is $260.29 and its 200 day moving average is $287.24. The company has a market capitalization of $34.02 billion, a PE ratio of 37.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.85. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $239.83 and a 12-month high of $322.92. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. Research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have recently commented on the company. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective 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. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price objective on Verisk Analytics and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, UBS Group cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $311.00.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $254.72, for a total transaction of $76,416.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer directly owned 15,165 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,862,828.80. This represents a 1.94% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total value of $294,811.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 78,907 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,147,865.07. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 8,520 shares of company stock valued at $2,273,891 over the last quarter. 0.46% of the stock is owned by 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.