Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Hits New 1-Year High at $273.77

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as high as $273.77 and last traded at $273.43, with a volume of 126183 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $272.36.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the topic of a number of research reports. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $255.08.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.3 %

The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $252.86 and a 200-day simple moving average of $242.60. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.99 billion, a P/E ratio of 51.00, a P/E/G ratio of 3.35 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The company had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total transaction of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,356,444.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $376,057.68. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 52,500 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $13,066,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,265 shares of company stock valued at $774,953 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.0% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Smithfield Trust Co increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.3% during the fourth quarter. Smithfield Trust Co now owns 727 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $175,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.9% during the first quarter. Whittier Trust Co. of Nevada Inc. now owns 1,533 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $361,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Webster Bank N. A. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 28.4% in the first quarter. Webster Bank N. A. now owns 208 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,000 after purchasing an additional 46 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wealth Alliance grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Wealth Alliance now owns 1,147 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 47 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.