Citigroup Inc. Sells 11,164 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Citigroup Inc. decreased its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 5.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm owned 211,911 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 11,164 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. owned 0.15% of Verisk Analytics worth $56,784,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter worth about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter worth about $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter worth about $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter worth about $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter worth about $46,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of several recent research reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of 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 lifted 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 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 research note on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price 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. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $290.73 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $272.66 and a 200 day moving average of $268.42. The stock has a market cap of $41.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $291.42. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.