Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by State Street Corp

State Street Corp lessened its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.4% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,190,370 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 25,487 shares during the quarter. State Street Corp owned 4.38% of Verisk Analytics worth $1,658,772,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the third quarter worth $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $287.06 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $296.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $277.46 and a 200 day moving average price of $271.07. The company has a market cap of $40.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.78, a PEG ratio of 3.66 and a beta of 0.87.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly 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 transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company 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.