BMO Capital Markets Boosts Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Price Target to $297.00

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) had its target price hoisted by investment analysts at BMO Capital Markets from $280.00 to $297.00 in a report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a “market perform” rating on the business services provider’s stock. BMO Capital Markets’ target price points to a potential upside of 0.03% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on VRSK. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $313.00 to $325.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, February 21st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 2.3 %

VRSK stock opened at $296.91 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $284.30 and its 200-day moving average price is $278.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $300.50. The stock has a market cap of $41.93 billion, a P/E ratio of 46.32, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% during the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,435,012,000 after acquiring an additional 392,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,292,047,000 after acquiring an additional 72,045 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,051,300,000 after acquiring an additional 19,423 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth about $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $455,789,000 after acquiring an additional 144,599 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.