Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Acquires 785 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 157.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 1,283 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 785 shares during the period. Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $353,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Mutual Advisors LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. Mutual Advisors LLC now owns 1,473 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $410,000 after buying an additional 217 shares in the last quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the fourth quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 45,379 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $12,499,000 after acquiring an additional 21,554 shares during the last quarter. Albion Financial Group UT bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $124,000. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2.2% in the 4th quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,705 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,224,000 after purchasing an additional 257 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Genesis Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth about $219,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $278.93 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $39.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.51, a PEG ratio of 3.20 and a beta of 0.88. 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, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $296.58. The business has a fifty day moving average of $281.49 and a 200 day moving average of $274.97.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 owns 15,608 shares in the company, 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 is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,490 shares of company stock worth $1,541,570 in the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.