Pensionfund Sabic Makes New Investment in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Pensionfund Sabic bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund bought 5,200 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,432,000.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at $50,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 101.5% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth $79,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 418.8% in the third quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 332 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $2.11 on Monday, reaching $274.17. 86,528 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 619,105. The firm has a market cap of $38.72 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.77, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $282.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $274.46. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.