Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Acquired by Aptus Capital Advisors LLC

Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,245 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 97 shares during the period. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $334,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of the business. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $405,030,000 after purchasing an additional 78,008 shares during the period. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the 1st quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,137,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $268,041,000 after acquiring an additional 12,231 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $297,491,000 after acquiring an additional 85,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.7% during the 2nd quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 613,185 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $165,284,000 after acquiring an additional 38,258 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $280.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.81, a P/E/G ratio of 3.59 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 $291.42. 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 business’s 50-day moving average is $271.31 and its 200-day moving average is $266.46.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 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.