Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Makes New Investment in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm purchased 1,497 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $401,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. KBC Group NV grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 15.3% during the third quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 35,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,622,000 after purchasing an additional 4,767 shares during the period. CIBC Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.7% in the third quarter. CIBC Asset Management Inc now owns 44,290 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $11,868,000 after buying an additional 2,374 shares during the last quarter. Diversified Trust Co bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,325,000. OFI Invest Asset Management increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,181.7% during the 2nd quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 2,875 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $723,000 after acquiring an additional 2,749 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at $28,739,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have commented on VRSK. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK opened at $290.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $291.42. The firm has a market cap of $41.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s fifty day moving average is $272.66 and its 200-day moving average is $268.27.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results 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. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.52 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. Corporate insiders own 0.40% 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.