Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Receives $252.00 Average Target Price from Brokerages

Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the fourteen brokerages that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $252.00.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Bank of America lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a report on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total value of $361,499.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,973 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,035,744.76. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter worth $374,530,000. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the 4th quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $272,663,000 after buying an additional 542,432 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 45.8% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $320,722,000 after acquiring an additional 422,002 shares in the last quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the third quarter. Massachusetts Financial Services Co. MA now owns 7,523,191 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,777,279,000 after acquiring an additional 392,945 shares during the last quarter. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the third quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after acquiring an additional 211,032 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $222.79 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The firm has a market cap of $31.80 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 52.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 0.78. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $233.33 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.73. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $187.86 and a fifty-two week high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 21st. The business services provider reported $1.40 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.44 by ($0.04). The firm had revenue of $677.20 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $673.56 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.43 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.70%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.05%.

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.