Advisors Asset Management Inc. Buys 95 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 3,152 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $845,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. PEAK6 Investments LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter valued at $495,000. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 35.6% during the 1st quarter. Silvercrest Asset Management Group LLC now owns 15,895 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $3,747,000 after purchasing an additional 4,169 shares in the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 131.6% during the 1st quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 45,960 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $10,832,000 after purchasing an additional 26,115 shares during the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 29.5% in the first quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,623 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $383,000 after buying an additional 370 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.9% in the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 231,772 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $54,636,000 after buying an additional 2,052 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six equities research 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $294.75 on Wednesday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $273.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $269.24. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.10. The company has a market capitalization of $41.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.98, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, 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 a total of 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is 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.