Renaissance Technologies LLC Buys 94,300 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 33.7% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 373,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 94,300 shares during the quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC owned 0.26% of Verisk Analytics worth $100,758,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 100.8% during the second quarter. Citizens Financial Group Inc. RI now owns 1,982 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $534,000 after buying an additional 995 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew 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 worth $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares in the last quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the second quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 4,655 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,255,000 after buying an additional 221 shares in the last quarter. OV Management LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.7% during the second quarter. OV Management LLC now owns 6,100 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,644,000 after buying an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 37.5% during the second quarter. Oppenheimer Asset Management Inc. now owns 68,607 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $18,493,000 after buying an additional 18,702 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and issued a $268.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $275.23.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $269.40 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $271.64 and its 200-day moving average price is $254.30. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.37 billion, a PE ratio of 50.26, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $215.32 and a one year high of $287.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.51 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Sunday, September 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, September 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.10%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the 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 sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,408 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $277.38, for a total value of $55,476.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,408 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,551,251.04. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total value of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 7,470 shares in the company, valued at $2,033,483.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.