Wells Fargo & Company Issues Pessimistic Forecast for Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock Price

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) had its price target cut by equities researchers at Wells Fargo & Company from $325.00 to $321.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “overweight” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Wells Fargo & Company‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 10.90% from the stock’s previous close.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. BMO Capital Markets lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised 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 note on Thursday, December 12th. Barclays cut shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, January 10th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $1.41 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $289.44. The company had a trading volume of 242,359 shares, compared to its average volume of 714,672. The business has a 50 day moving average of $283.61 and a 200-day moving average of $277.94. The company has a market cap of $40.87 billion, a PE ratio of 45.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $300.50. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Sanctuary Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 188.2% in the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 25,637 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,454,000 after acquiring an additional 16,742 shares during the last quarter. Aaron Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at $212,000. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 899.1% in the third quarter. Icon Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 11,919 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $2,913,000 after acquiring an additional 10,726 shares during the last quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 479.1% during the third quarter. Point72 Hong Kong Ltd now owns 16,853 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,516,000 after acquiring an additional 13,943 shares during the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 15.3% in the 3rd quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 35,908 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $9,622,000 after purchasing an additional 4,767 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.