Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Increases Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 101.5% in the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 139 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $74,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. National Pension Service raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 19.6% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 210,057 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $56,287,000 after buying an additional 34,455 shares during the last quarter. Nvwm LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% during the third quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 6,086 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,631,000 after buying an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 11.0% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,766 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $473,000 after buying an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.0% in the third quarter. Stephens Investment Management Group LLC now owns 326,143 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $87,393,000 after purchasing an additional 6,272 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oak Ridge Investments LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.4% during the third quarter. Oak Ridge Investments LLC now owns 39,066 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,468,000 after purchasing an additional 2,349 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.2 %

VRSK stock opened at $279.13 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The business’s 50-day moving average is $269.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $263.70. The company has a market cap of $39.42 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.55, a P/E/G ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $287.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid 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 presently 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the company. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.80.

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.