B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. Sells 595 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. decreased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 36.7% during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,028 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 595 shares during the period. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $277,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. OFI Invest Asset Management acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Riverview Trust Co acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth approximately $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on VRSK shares. Barclays upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $268.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $276.69.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total transaction of $55,476.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $272.22 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.38 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $215.32 and a twelve month high of $287.13. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $268.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $257.41.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Sunday, September 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

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.