Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Sees Significant Increase in Short Interest

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) saw a significant increase in short interest during the month of August. As of August 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,450,000 shares, an increase of 33.9% from the July 31st total of 1,830,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 761,200 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 3.2 days. Approximately 1.7% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets cut their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $278.00 to $263.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $268.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Evercore ISI raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 25th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $273.54.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total value of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares in the company, valued at $2,033,483.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total value of $88,743.72. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,033,483.40. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares in the company, valued at $4,551,251.04. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 726 shares of company stock worth $196,682. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position 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 worth $3,919,008,000 after buying an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after buying an additional 111,364 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth approximately $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $405,030,000 after buying an additional 78,008 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 90.5% during the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $272,663,000 after buying an additional 542,432 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $272.82 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $38.92 billion, a PE ratio of 50.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $271.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $251.80. Verisk Analytics has a 1-year low of $215.32 and a 1-year high of $287.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.51 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 15th will be given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.10%.

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.