Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec Buys 45,812 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 121.8% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 83,428 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 45,812 shares during the quarter. Caisse DE Depot ET Placement DU Quebec’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $22,355,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

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

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. BMO Capital Markets upped 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. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Barclays raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $294.21 on Monday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58. The firm has a market cap of $41.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 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. The business’s fifty day moving average is $275.42 and its two-hundred day moving average is $270.24.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.52 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business 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 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 Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,923,385.73. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.