Public Sector Pension Investment Board Grows Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.8% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,183 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 500 shares during the quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,657,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth approximately $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity

In other 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 transaction of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSK. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $288.90 on Friday. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $277.46 and its two-hundred day moving average is $271.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.62 and a beta of 0.87. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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 issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Verisk Analytics 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.