Insider Selling: Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CFO Sells 300 Shares of Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total transaction of $91,164.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 15,765 shares in the company, valued at $4,790,668.20. This represents a 1.87% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of VRSK stock traded down $1.14 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $301.47. 334,606 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 777,270. The company has a market capitalization of $42.17 billion, a PE ratio of 44.14, a PEG ratio of 3.74 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $257.59 and a 52 week high of $322.92. The business has a 50 day moving average of $309.31 and a two-hundred day moving average of $296.01. The company has a current ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 1.27 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 26.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 7th. The business services provider reported $1.73 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.68 by $0.05. The business had revenue of $753.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $750.31 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 33.13% and a return on equity of 396.08%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.63 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 30th. Investors of record on Friday, June 13th were given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, June 13th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.35%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, April 10th. They issued an "underperform" rating and a $280.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $295.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $302.40.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. USA Financial Formulas lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 101.1% in the second quarter. USA Financial Formulas now owns 9,493 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,957,000 after acquiring an additional 4,772 shares during the last quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter. Ninety One SA PTY Ltd now owns 25,421 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $7,856,000 after purchasing an additional 243 shares in the last quarter. Panoramic Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $204,000. Childress Capital Advisors LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $226,000. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 2.4% in the 2nd quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,220 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $2,872,000 after buying an additional 220 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.