Logan Capital Management Inc. Acquires 50 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Logan Capital Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.1% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 54,420 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 50 shares during the quarter. Logan Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $14,582,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter valued at approximately $46,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted 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. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of VRSK traded down $2.10 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $282.81. The company had a trading volume of 21,657 shares, compared to its average volume of 775,110. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.51, a P/E/G ratio of 3.57 and a beta of 0.87. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $279.25 and a 200-day moving average price of $272.25. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $296.58. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping 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 business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced 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 of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at $14,923,385.73. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’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 $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 represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.