Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Rating Lowered to "Hold (C+)" at Weiss Ratings

Key Points

• Verisk Analytics has been downgraded by Weiss Ratings from a "buy (B-)" rating to a "hold (C+)" rating, reflecting concerns about the company’s future performance.
• UBS Group has decreased its target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 while maintaining a "neutral" rating, while other analysts have varied in their ratings from "strong buy" to "strong sell."
• The stock earned $1.88 per share last quarter, beating estimates, and the company has set its earnings guidance for FY 2025 at 6.800-7.000 EPS.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) was downgraded by research analysts at Weiss Ratings from a "buy (b-)" rating to a "hold (c+)" rating in a research report issued on Friday,Weiss Ratings reports.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. UBS Group decreased 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 report on Thursday, July 31st. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Rothschild Redb downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a "hold" rating to a "strong sell" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Seaport Res Ptn upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, five have given a Buy rating, six have assigned a Hold rating and three have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.1%

VRSK traded up $0.15 during trading on Friday, hitting $234.94. The stock had a trading volume of 943,638 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,157,442. The company has a market capitalization of $32.82 billion, a PE ratio of 34.08, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 0.85. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $228.09 and a twelve month high of $322.92. 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $253.94 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $283.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. Verisk Analytics's revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last 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, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $1,436,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 54,337 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,399,305. The trade was a 9.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total transaction of $294,811.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,907 shares of the company's stock, valued at $21,147,865.07. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 8,520 shares of company stock worth $2,255,396 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.46% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. AlphaCore Capital LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $27,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $29,000. NewSquare Capital LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 69.0% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 98 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $31,000 after acquiring an additional 40 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hantz Financial Services Inc. boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 62.7% during the second quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 109 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $34,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares during the last quarter. 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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