Millennium Management LLC Sells 586,425 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Millennium Management LLC trimmed its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 77.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 172,805 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 586,425 shares during the period. Millennium Management LLC owned 0.12% of Verisk Analytics worth $46,580,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in 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 during the period. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its holdings 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 valued at $405,030,000 after purchasing an additional 78,008 shares in the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% during the first quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,137,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $268,041,000 after purchasing an additional 12,231 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 85,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Schroder Investment Management Group boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 24.9% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 690,022 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $164,819,000 after purchasing an additional 137,706 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the topic of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets cut their target price on Verisk Analytics from $278.00 to $263.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective 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. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $275.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares in the company, valued at $4,551,251.04. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $268.62 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $268.96 and its 200-day moving average price is $256.53. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $287.13. The company has a market cap of $38.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 50.12, a P/E/G ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a current ratio of 0.95.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced 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 net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.51 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

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.