Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Raises Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Key Points

• Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 45.8%, acquiring an additional 58,995 shares in the first quarter, elevating its total holdings to approximately 187,692 shares valued at $55.861 million.
• Verisk Analytics reported $1.88 EPS for its last quarter, surpassing analysts' expectations, with a revenue increase of 7.8% compared to the previous year.
• The company announced a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share, with a dividend yield of 0.7%, to be paid on September 30th.

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec raised its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 45.8% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 187,692 shares of the business services provider's stock after acquiring an additional 58,995 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec owned approximately 0.13% of Verisk Analytics worth $55,861,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% during 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 purchasing an additional 239,483 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $669,958,000 after purchasing an additional 596,225 shares in the last quarter. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $508,611,000. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,704,246 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $507,219,000 after purchasing an additional 283,238 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.1% during the 1st quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 1,674,516 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $498,369,000 after purchasing an additional 34,797 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VRSK. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price 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. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $305.60.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Christopher John Perry purchased 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $259.80 per share, for a total transaction of $259,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 1,773 shares in the company, valued at approximately $460,625.40. The trade was a 129.37% increase in their ownership of the stock. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $98,080.36. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 9,319 shares of the company's stock, valued at $2,803,714.34. The trade was a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 25,620 shares of company stock worth $7,862,427. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock traded up $1.93 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $268.12. The stock had a trading volume of 652,634 shares, compared to its average volume of 907,115. The company's fifty day simple moving average is $287.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $294.96. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34. The company has a market cap of $37.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.83. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $259.01 and a 52-week high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The business had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. The company's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued 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 currently 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.