Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Boosts Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 9,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 279 shares during the quarter. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,550,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Markel Group Inc. increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the 3rd quarter. Markel Group Inc. now owns 144,950 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,841,000 after purchasing an additional 11,250 shares during the period. CWA Asset Management Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter valued at $377,000. Fiera Capital Corp raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 15.5% in the third quarter. Fiera Capital Corp now owns 34,417 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $9,222,000 after acquiring an additional 4,614 shares in the last quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 9.2% in the third quarter. Portside Wealth Group LLC now owns 1,737 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $465,000 after acquiring an additional 146 shares during the period. Finally, Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Kornitzer Capital Management Inc. KS now owns 82,037 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $21,983,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.7 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $284.98 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $287.21. The company has a market cap of $40.24 billion, a PE ratio of 44.46, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.86. The company’s 50 day moving average is $270.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $264.24.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. Analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.