Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV Sells 235 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV trimmed its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 41.6% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 330 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 235 shares during the quarter. Creative Financial Designs Inc. ADV’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $88,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at $41,000. Kings Path Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $46,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth about $49,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $277.22 on Tuesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $287.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The firm has a market cap of $39.15 billion, a PE ratio of 43.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $269.26 and a 200 day simple moving average of $263.18.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.61 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

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.