State of Alaska Department of Revenue Purchases 70 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.4% during the 1st quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 15,731 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 70 shares during the period. State of Alaska Department of Revenue’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,708,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after acquiring an additional 170,620 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 45.8% in the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,342,721 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $320,722,000 after purchasing an additional 422,002 shares during the period. JPMorgan Chase & Co. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 21.4% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,195,471 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $282,418,000 after purchasing an additional 211,032 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 542,432 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $274.45 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $255.95 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $243.29. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $215.32 and a 52-week high of $275.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a quick ratio of 1.09 and a current ratio of 1.09. The company has a market cap of $39.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 51.20, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.84.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.55 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 29.10%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,265 shares of company stock valued at $774,953 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VRSK. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 2nd. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $255.08.

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.