UBS Group Has Lowered Expectations for Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock Price

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Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) had its price objective reduced by analysts at UBS Group from $320.00 to $300.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a "neutral" rating on the business services provider's stock. UBS Group's target price would suggest a potential upside of 8.22% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on the stock. Bank of America assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 price target on the stock. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $300.40.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.6%

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $1.76 on Thursday, hitting $277.23. 193,112 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 864,097. Verisk Analytics has a 52-week low of $257.59 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13, a current ratio of 1.27 and a quick ratio of 1.27. The company has a market capitalization of $38.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.59, a P/E/G ratio of 3.73 and a beta of 0.86. The company's 50-day moving average price is $306.96 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $297.24.

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, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The business had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $767.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics's revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total transaction of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 12,937 shares in the company, valued at $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $98,080.36. Following the sale, the insider owned 9,319 shares of the company's stock, valued at $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. Over the last three months, insiders sold 28,825 shares of company stock valued at $8,947,730. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 966.7% during the first quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 128 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $38,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Minot DeBlois Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $39,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter valued at about $48,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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