Amalgamated Bank Increases Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Amalgamated Bank raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.8% during the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 31,305 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 567 shares during the quarter. Amalgamated Bank’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $8,388,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Marshall Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 4,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,322,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,586 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $693,000 after buying an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.2% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 3,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $982,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the period. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 19.0% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after acquiring an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $664,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have recently commented on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were 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 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 SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $279.13 on Thursday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $269.62 and its 200 day simple moving average is $263.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $287.13. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.42 billion, a PE ratio of 43.55, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid 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 dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 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.