Bruce Edward Hansen Sells 1,179 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $268.63 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $282.62 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $274.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Friday. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $293.11.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VRSK. FMR LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after purchasing an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,144,000 after acquiring an additional 261,961 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,941,000 after acquiring an additional 203,951 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% in the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $164,750,000 after acquiring an additional 195,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 158.2% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,521,000 after acquiring an additional 113,230 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.