FORA Capital LLC Takes $3.12 Million Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

FORA Capital LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 11,635 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $3,118,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after purchasing an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the 3rd quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,144,000 after acquiring an additional 261,961 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,941,000 after acquiring an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at $28,739,000. Finally, Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 187.1% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,305,000 after purchasing an additional 111,992 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on VRSK. Barclays upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at $15,517,157.87. This trade represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now 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. Insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.4 %

VRSK traded up $1.22 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $295.97. The company had a trading volume of 36,377 shares, compared to its average volume of 781,376. The company has a market capitalization of $41.79 billion, a PE ratio of 46.26, a PEG ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $296.59. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $273.66 and its 200 day moving average price is $269.24.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 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 company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. 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 is currently 24.34%.

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.