Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Receives Consensus Recommendation of "Hold" from Brokerages

Key Points

• Verisk Analytics has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from ten research firms, with one sell rating, five hold ratings, and four buy ratings; the average target price is $305.60.
• Insider transactions show significant selling, with CFO Elizabeth Mann selling 300 shares and Director Samuel G. Liss selling 11,656 shares, indicating a decrease in ownership stakes.
• The company reported $1.88 EPS for its last quarter, exceeding analysts' expectations, with a revenue increase of 7.8% year-over-year, amounting to $772.60 million.

Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) have earned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the ten research firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $305.60.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price target on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group lowered their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, May 8th.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $303.88, for a total transaction of $91,164.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total value of $3,649,027.36. Following the sale, the director owned 67,244 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,051,406.64. This trade represents a 14.77% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 23,120 shares of company stock valued at $7,192,416 over the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $4,980,251,000 after purchasing an additional 239,483 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,235,090 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,558,067,000 after purchasing an additional 25,010 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,011,295 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,249,900,000 after purchasing an additional 33,213 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $669,958,000 after purchasing an additional 596,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Nuveen LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth approximately $508,611,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $265.04 on Monday. Verisk Analytics has a one year low of $260.17 and a one year high of $322.92. The company has a market cap of $37.03 billion, a PE ratio of 40.84, a P/E/G ratio of 3.75 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 1.53. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $300.46 and a 200-day simple moving average of $297.08.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

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.

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