Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 658 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. lifted its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 331,342 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 658 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $88,786,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after acquiring an additional 111,364 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $405,030,000 after acquiring an additional 78,008 shares in the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the first quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,137,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $268,041,000 after acquiring an additional 12,231 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $297,491,000 after purchasing an additional 85,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.7% in the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 613,185 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $165,284,000 after purchasing an additional 38,258 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 at this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $290.04 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $291.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.25, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $270.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.74.

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 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 return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company 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 $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

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.