Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Earns Outperform Rating from Royal Bank of Canada

Royal Bank of Canada reissued their outperform rating on shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) in a research report sent to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Royal Bank of Canada currently has a $300.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $273.52 on Tuesday. Verisk Analytics has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.58. The stock has a market cap of $38.62 billion, a PE ratio of 42.67, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $282.55 and a 200 day moving average price of $274.51. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS 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 business had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. FMR LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in 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 buying an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $331,476,000 after purchasing an additional 78,376 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings 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 valued at $214,676,000 after purchasing an additional 8,262 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.