Insider Selling: Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CFO Sells 200 Shares of Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.4 %

VRSK stock traded up $1.03 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $270.60. 597,490 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 806,581. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $215.32 and a 52-week high of $287.13. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.54 billion, a PE ratio of 43.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $268.55 and its 200-day moving average price is $258.96.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.51 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Sunday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 25.32%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. UBS Group upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $276.69.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $499,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $698,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth approximately $69,000. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,521 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $359,000 after purchasing an additional 112 shares during the period. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth $105,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.