Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires 236 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 11.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,335 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 236 shares during the quarter. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $626,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter valued at $46,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $294.75 on Wednesday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $273.66 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $269.24. The firm has a market cap of $41.62 billion, a PE ratio of 45.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.86. 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 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $296.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted 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. Royal Bank of Canada increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective 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. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics 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.