Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Rating Lowered to Equal Weight at Barclays

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) was downgraded by stock analysts at Barclays from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They currently have a $310.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 10.55% from the company’s previous close.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on VRSK. Robert W. Baird raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $280.42 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $282.76 and its 200-day moving average price is $274.59. The stock has a market cap of $39.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 43.75, a PEG 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 for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.52 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 3,579 shares of company stock valued at $1,000,407 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. FMR LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,237,700,000 after purchasing an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC grew its stake 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 buying an additional 261,961 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $145,941,000 after buying an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Two Sigma Advisers LP increased its position in 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 buying an additional 195,700 shares during the period. Finally, Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 158.2% in the 3rd quarter. Worldquant Millennium Advisors LLC now owns 184,806 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $49,521,000 after purchasing an additional 113,230 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.