Sanctuary Advisors LLC Increases Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 188.2% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 25,637 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 16,742 shares during the period. Sanctuary Advisors LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $7,454,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after buying an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,144,000 after acquiring an additional 261,961 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,941,000 after acquiring an additional 203,951 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the 3rd quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after acquiring an additional 195,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 158.2% during the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $49,521,000 after acquiring an additional 113,230 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.80.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was 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 owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $283.35 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.01 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.20, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.87. 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 stock’s fifty day moving average is $279.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $272.64.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share 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 firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed 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 yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Verisk Analytics 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.