Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK Shares Sold by Vontobel Holding Ltd.

Key Points

• Vontobel Holding Ltd. reduced its stake in Verisk Analytics by 7.6%, owning approximately 0.05% of the company worth $22.4 million after selling 5,877 shares during Q2.
• Verisk Analytics reported $1.88 EPS for the last quarter, beating estimates, with a 7.8% year-over-year revenue increase of $772.6 million.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share, resulting in an annualized dividend yield of 0.7% and a payout ratio of 27.73%.

Vontobel Holding Ltd. lessened its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 7.6% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 71,930 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 5,877 shares during the quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. owned about 0.05% of Verisk Analytics worth $22,406,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. 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 purchasing an additional 239,483 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the 1st 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 period. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.0% in the 1st 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 during the period. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at $508,611,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.9% in 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 acquiring an additional 283,238 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total transaction of $294,811.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,907 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,147,865.07. This trade represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $1,436,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 54,337 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,399,305. This represents a 9.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,520 shares of company stock valued at $2,273,891 in the last 90 days. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $241.27 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $239.83 and a 12-month high of $322.92. The company has a market capitalization of $33.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 37.18, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $259.54 and its 200 day moving average price is $286.94.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly 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. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The firm's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th were issued 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 was Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.73%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRSK. UBS Group cut their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. 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. Morgan Stanley raised 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. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $340.00 to $334.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have assigned a Buy rating, four have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $311.00.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.

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