Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates Outperform Rating for Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by equities research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. They presently have a $268.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price objective points to a potential upside of 3.13% from the company’s current price.

VRSK has been the subject of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective 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. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 25th. Robert W. Baird lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $266.21.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of VRSK stock traded down $1.89 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $259.86. 388,962 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 842,086. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $268.40 and its 200-day moving average price is $248.56. The company has a market cap of $37.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 48.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.56 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a quick ratio of 1.09, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $215.32 and a 12 month high of $287.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The business’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.51 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,511 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, May 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $248.88, for a total transaction of $376,057.68. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 52,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,066,200. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, 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 transaction of $376,057.68. Following the sale, the insider now owns 52,500 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,066,200. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,237 shares of company stock valued at $572,739. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.4% in the fourth quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 13,428 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,208,000 after purchasing an additional 807 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 44.2% in the 4th quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 385 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $91,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the last quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 48.5% in the 4th quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $36,000 after buying an additional 49 shares during the last quarter. UMB Bank n.a. raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 9,244 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,208,000 after buying an additional 143 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.5% in the 4th quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 7,551 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,804,000 after acquiring an additional 326 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.