Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co Sells 150 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co decreased its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.1% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,098 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 150 shares during the quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,531,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $272,663,000 after acquiring an additional 542,432 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 45.8% in the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $320,722,000 after acquiring an additional 422,002 shares during the last quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 178.5% in the fourth quarter. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado now owns 319,341 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $76,278,000 after acquiring an additional 204,657 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,919,008,000 after acquiring an additional 170,620 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 225.5% in the fourth quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 205,110 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $48,993,000 after acquiring an additional 142,088 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.8 %

VRSK stock opened at $264.76 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $287.13. The business’s 50-day moving average is $271.22 and its two-hundred day moving average is $254.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. The company has a market cap of $37.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. The company had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.45 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.51 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 15th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.59%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 29.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,551,251.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,551,251.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total value of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,033,483.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Barclays increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.23.

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.