Callahan Advisors LLC Has $4.17 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Callahan Advisors LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 21.6% in the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 15,545 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 2,765 shares during the quarter. Callahan Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,165,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Private Advisor Group LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 2.0% during the 1st quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 2,739 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $646,000 after purchasing an additional 55 shares during the period. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. BI Asset Management Fondsmaeglerselskab A S now owns 3,205 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $756,000 after purchasing an additional 165 shares during the period. GSA Capital Partners LLP acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $1,115,000. Flossbach Von Storch AG increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the 1st quarter. Flossbach Von Storch AG now owns 288,382 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $67,980,000 after purchasing an additional 2,392 shares during the period. Finally, Empirical Finance LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. Empirical Finance LLC now owns 5,485 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,293,000 after purchasing an additional 174 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $279.68 on Wednesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $287.13. The business’s fifty day moving average is $269.47 and its 200 day moving average is $263.59. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock has a market cap of $39.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.48 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have weighed in on VRSK. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

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.