Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Price Target Raised to $241.00

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) had its price objective boosted by BMO Capital Markets from $238.00 to $241.00 in a research report sent to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the business services provider's stock.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Bank of America cut Verisk Analytics from a buy rating to a neutral rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an in-line rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $252.21.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $0.95 during trading on Thursday, hitting $233.76. 1,538,554 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 903,831. The stock has a market cap of $33.37 billion, a PE ratio of 55.17, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.79. The stock's fifty day moving average is $231.69 and its 200 day moving average is $236.05. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $198.40 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 305.15% and a net margin of 22.92%. The company's revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.48 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company's board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 37.05%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at about $28,000. CVA Family Office LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $30,000. Frazier Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at $32,000. DSM Capital Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth about $33,000. Finally, Global Retirement Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% during the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

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.