Analysts Set Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Target Price at $293.11

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the nine ratings firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, two have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $293.11.

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Robert W. Baird raised their price target 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 target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, January 10th.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.3 %

VRSK stock opened at $278.93 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $39.39 billion, a PE ratio of 43.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.88. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $296.58. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $281.49 and its 200 day moving average is $274.97. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping 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 company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,490 shares of company stock valued at $1,541,570 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at about $50,000. Crews Bank & Trust acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at about $55,000. Finally, Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 101.5% during the 3rd quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $74,000 after acquiring an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.