Procyon Advisors LLC Raises Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Procyon Advisors LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.0% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,543 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 60 shares during the period. Procyon Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $413,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,941,000 after buying an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 187.1% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,305,000 after purchasing an additional 111,992 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 33.7% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 373,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $100,758,000 after purchasing an additional 94,300 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets reduced their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $278.00 to $263.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $276.69.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.1 %

Shares of VRSK opened at $269.57 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $215.32 and a one year high of $287.13. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $268.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $258.96. The company has a market capitalization of $38.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.51 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.57 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

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.