Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CFO Sells $80,400.00 in Stock

Key Points

• Verisk Analytics CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares at an average price of $268.00, totaling $80,400.00, reducing her ownership by 1.90%.
• The company reported a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%, with earnings of $1.88 per share, exceeding analysts' expectations.
• Verisk Analytics declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45, resulting in an annual yield of 0.7%, and the payout ratio stands at 27.73%.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.00, for a total value of $80,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 15,465 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $4,144,620. The trade was a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

Elizabeth Mann also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, July 15th, Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of Verisk Analytics stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total transaction of $91,164.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded down $2.17 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $265.69. 1,033,096 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 905,338. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $259.01 and a 12 month high of $322.92. The company's 50 day moving average price is $295.08 and its 200 day moving average price is $296.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.12 billion, a PE ratio of 40.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.83.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its 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 company had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.7%. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 27.73%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price target on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $305.60.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,894,802 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $5,262,731,000 after purchasing an additional 161,213 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 25,010 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,011,295 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,249,900,000 after purchasing an additional 33,213 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 596,225 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at $556,192,000. 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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