Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Given Outperform Rating at Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed their outperform rating on shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $300.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock.

VRSK has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Five research 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 data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $280.42 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market capitalization of $39.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $282.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $274.59. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million during 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 3,579 shares of company stock valued at $1,000,407. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Pensionfund Sabic purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at $1,432,000. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 19.7% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,306 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $911,000 after purchasing an additional 545 shares in the last quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 29.5% in the third quarter. Lord Abbett & CO. LLC now owns 104,536 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $28,011,000 after purchasing an additional 23,823 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $229,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.