Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Director Bruce Edward Hansen Sells 1,179 Shares

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $6.90 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $280.42. 1,088,446 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 891,151. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $282.55 and its 200 day moving average price is $274.51. The firm has a market cap of $39.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $296.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released 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 company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $289.80.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,237,700,000 after buying an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.4% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,150 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $214,676,000 after purchasing an additional 8,262 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.