Cerity Partners LLC Grows Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Cerity Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 16.6% during the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 47,233 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,736 shares during the quarter. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $12,657,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Mizuho Securities USA LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 261,961 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in 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 buying an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 187.1% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,305,000 after acquiring an additional 111,992 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. 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 company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.3 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $291.49 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $273.11 and a 200-day simple moving average of $268.91. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $293.19. The company has a market cap of $41.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.47, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

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.