Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. The average twelve-month price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $299.33.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on VRSK. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Assetmark Inc. lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 8.3% during the third quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 6,730 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,803,000 after acquiring an additional 513 shares during the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth approximately $34,000. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.6% during the 3rd quarter. OVERSEA CHINESE BANKING Corp Ltd now owns 3,815 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,022,000 after purchasing an additional 270 shares during the last quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% in the 3rd quarter. Aptus Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,245 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $334,000 after buying an additional 97 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Haverford Trust Co bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter worth $230,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $288.93 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $40.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.07, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $306.10. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $288.62 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $280.51.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. On average, analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

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.