Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Cut to Equal Weight at Barclays

Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $310.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $268.63 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $37.93 billion, a PE ratio of 41.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.58. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $282.62 and a 200-day moving average price of $274.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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 the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing 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 dated 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 $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,579 shares of company stock valued at $1,000,407. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the third 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. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after acquiring an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% in 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 acquiring an additional 78,376 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 85,202 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.0% during the third 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. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.