Exchange Traded Concepts LLC Grows Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 33.9% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 13,805 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 3,495 shares during the quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,699,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $698,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,919,008,000 after buying an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.2% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 362,915 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $85,550,000 after buying an additional 4,147 shares during the period. Diversified Trust Co purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $1,325,000. Finally, Global Assets Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $11,582,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $268.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, UBS Group lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $276.69.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.0 %

VRSK stock opened at $268.23 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $38.27 billion, a PE ratio of 50.04, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 0.86. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $268.24 and a 200 day moving average price of $258.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $287.13.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

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.