Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Coverage Initiated by Analysts at Wolfe Research

Key Points

• Wolfe Research has initiated coverage on Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ: VRSK) with an "outperform" rating and a price target of $320, indicating a potential upside of 20.27% from its previous close.
• Verisk Analytics reported quarterly earnings of $1.88 per share, exceeding the consensus estimate of $1.77, with revenues of $772.6 million, up 7.8% year-over-year.
• The stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" from analysts, with five buy ratings, five hold ratings, and one sell rating, while the average price target stands at $306.91.

Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) in a report issued on Wednesday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage set an "outperform" rating and a $320.00 price target on the business services provider's stock. Wolfe Research's target price would indicate a potential upside of 20.27% from the company's previous close.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted 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. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Monday, August 4th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $306.91.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.8%

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $266.07 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34. The company has a fifty day moving average of $285.20 and a two-hundred day moving average of $294.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.17 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 40.93, a PEG ratio of 3.80 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $259.01 and a 52 week high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. Verisk Analytics's quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.00, for a total transaction of $80,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer owned 15,465 shares in the company, valued at $4,144,620. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,419 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $1,630,360.34. Following the transaction, the insider owned 55,913 shares in the company, valued at $16,821,985.18. This trade represents a 8.84% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 20,201 shares of company stock worth $6,138,643. Corporate insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,235,090 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,558,067,000 after acquiring an additional 25,010 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,011,295 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,249,900,000 after acquiring an additional 33,213 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $669,958,000 after acquiring an additional 596,225 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth $556,192,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.

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