Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Research Coverage Started at Wolfe Research

Wolfe Research started coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) in a report published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued an outperform rating and a $320.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock.

VRSK has been the subject of several other reports. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Finally, Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $306.91.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $270.31 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.65, a P/E/G ratio of 3.83 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $259.01 and a twelve month high of $322.92. The company has a 50 day moving average of $283.02 and a 200-day moving average of $293.91. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The business had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $767.91 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.74 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 27.73%.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $1,436,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 54,337 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,399,305. The trade was a 9.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Christopher John Perry acquired 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $259.80 per share, with a total value of $259,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,773 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $460,625.40. This trade represents a 129.37% increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 25,621 shares of company stock valued at $7,574,943. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Osaic Holdings Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 50.6% in the second quarter. Osaic Holdings Inc. now owns 15,454 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,805,000 after acquiring an additional 5,194 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.3% in the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 13,149 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,096,000 after acquiring an additional 781 shares during the period. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.1% in the second quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 106,308 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $33,115,000 after acquiring an additional 6,097 shares during the period. Promus Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 23.9% in the second quarter. Promus Capital LLC now owns 2,329 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $726,000 after acquiring an additional 450 shares during the period. Finally, Stance Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $1,304,000. 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.