Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Reaches New 12-Month High at $271.76

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) shares reached a new 52-week high on Monday . The company traded as high as $271.76 and last traded at $270.96, with a volume of 19048 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $270.32.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $254.31.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.5 %

The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.77 billion, a PE ratio of 50.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 0.83. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $246.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $241.01.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.29 EPS. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 9,746 shares of company stock worth $2,285,415. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after acquiring an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.1% during the first quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,424,606 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $335,822,000 after purchasing an additional 81,885 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% during the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $272,663,000 after purchasing an additional 542,432 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About Verisk Analytics

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.