Brokerages Set Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Price Target at $306.91

Key Points

• Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) has received an average broker rating of "Hold," with one sell rating, five hold ratings, and five buy ratings among the eleven analysts covering the stock.
• Recent analyst price targets for VRSK range from $300.00 to $335.00, with several firms listing it as "outperform."
• The company will pay a quarterly dividend of $0.45 on September 30th, reflecting an annualized yield of 0.7%.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) has earned an average rating of "Hold" from the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have given a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $306.9091.

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. They set an "outperform" rating and a $320.00 price objective for the company. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $3.51 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $269.52. The stock had a trading volume of 456,687 shares, compared to its average volume of 909,346. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $259.01 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The stock has a market cap of $37.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.53, a PEG ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.86. The company's 50 day simple moving average is $282.25 and its 200 day simple moving average is $293.75. 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 issued its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The business had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics's revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is 27.73%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total value of $294,811.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,907 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,147,865.07. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $1,436,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 54,337 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,399,305. This represents a 9.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 25,621 shares of company stock valued at $7,574,943 over the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

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

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.