Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Purchases 4,036 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 17.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 27,769 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,036 shares during the quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $7,441,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at $46,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on VRSK. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK stock opened at $291.49 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $273.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $268.91. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $293.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.47, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.