Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Director Christopher John Perry Purchases 1,000 Shares

Key Points

• Verisk Analytics Director Christopher John Perry acquired 1,000 shares at a price of $259.80 per share, totaling $259,800, which increased his ownership by 129.37%.
• The company reported a quarterly earnings of $1.88 EPS, exceeding expectations of $1.77, with a revenue of $772.60 million, a 7.8% year-over-year increase.
• Verisk Analytics declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45, which will be paid on September 30th, representing an annualized yield of 0.7%.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) Director Christopher John Perry bought 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was bought at an average price of $259.80 per share, for a total transaction of $259,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 1,773 shares of the company's stock, valued at $460,625.40. The trade was a 129.37% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $5.57 on Tuesday, reaching $271.26. The company's stock had a trading volume of 113,364 shares, compared to its average volume of 900,068. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $259.01 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The stock has a market cap of $37.90 billion, a PE ratio of 41.77, a PEG ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 0.83. The firm's 50 day moving average is $294.13 and its two-hundred day moving average is $296.30. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data 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. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.74 EPS. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

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

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter worth about $25,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $27,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter worth about $28,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 69.0% in the 2nd quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 98 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company's stock.

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.