Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Reaches New 52-Week High at $279.77

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Monday . The stock traded as high as $279.77 and last traded at $279.42, with a volume of 68166 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $277.38.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently issued reports on VRSK. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Finally, UBS Group raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $257.21.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.2 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.09. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $260.65 and a 200 day moving average price of $244.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 52.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.45 and a beta of 0.84.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,033,483.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total value of $376,057.68. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 52,500 shares in the company, valued at $13,066,200. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,033,483.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,037 shares of company stock valued at $517,263 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Czech National Bank raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.6% in the second quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 27,189 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $7,329,000 after acquiring an additional 1,679 shares during the last quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.2% in the second quarter. MJP Associates Inc. ADV now owns 1,665 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $449,000 after acquiring an additional 67 shares during the last quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 37.6% in the second quarter. Gateway Investment Advisers LLC now owns 5,066 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,366,000 after acquiring an additional 1,383 shares during the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 29.3% in the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 91,636 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $24,700,000 after acquiring an additional 20,777 shares during the last quarter. Finally, QRG Capital Management Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.6% in the second quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 20,203 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,446,000 after acquiring an additional 1,080 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.