Bowie Capital Management LLC Increases Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Bowie Capital Management LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 14.0% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 62,955 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,754 shares during the quarter. Verisk Analytics accounts for approximately 0.9% of Bowie Capital Management LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position. Bowie Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $16,869,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of the company. Marshall Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the third quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 4,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,322,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,586 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $693,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.2% in the 2nd quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 3,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $982,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 19.0% during the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $57,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.8% during the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $664,000 after buying an additional 43 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts have recently commented on VRSK shares. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. 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 note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target 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. 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 report on Thursday, August 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock traded up $1.68 on Monday, reaching $292.41. The stock had a trading volume of 12,138 shares, compared to its average volume of 782,784. The stock has a market cap of $41.29 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $217.34 and a 1 year high of $292.41. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $272.66 and a 200 day simple moving average of $268.59.

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. Equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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 given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % 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, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,289,184.64. This represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764 in the last 90 days. 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.