SMI Advisory Services LLC Purchases New Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

SMI Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm purchased 16,975 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,893,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after acquiring an additional 170,620 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $320,722,000 after acquiring an additional 422,002 shares during the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $272,663,000 after acquiring an additional 542,432 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $255.08.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total transaction of $52,462.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,356,444.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total transaction of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,356,444.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,265 shares of company stock valued at $774,953 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $270.31 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $248.11 and a 200-day moving average price of $241.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $273.70. The company has a market capitalization of $38.57 billion, a PE ratio of 50.35, a P/E/G ratio of 3.39 and a beta of 0.83.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. 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.