Verisk Analytics’ (VRSK) Outperform Rating Reaffirmed at Royal Bank of Canada

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating reaffirmed by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $300.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s price target suggests a potential upside of 10.28% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also recently weighed in on VRSK. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets lifted 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Verisk Analytics stock traded down $0.97 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $272.03. 67,443 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 678,423. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $282.35 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $274.49. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58. The stock has a market cap of $38.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics 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 transaction of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now 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 ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during 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 acquiring an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% in the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 261,961 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% during the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,941,000 after purchasing an additional 203,951 shares in the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% during the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $164,750,000 after purchasing an additional 195,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 158.2% in the third quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,521,000 after buying an additional 113,230 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.