Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. Has $501,000 Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Stegent Equity Advisors Inc. lowered its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 50.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 1,870 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,935 shares during the period. Stegent Equity Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $501,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the stock. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% during the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,941,000 after acquiring an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Swedbank AB bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 187.1% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,305,000 after purchasing an additional 111,992 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 33.7% in the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 373,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $100,758,000 after buying an additional 94,300 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. BMO Capital Markets lowered their price target on Verisk Analytics from $278.00 to $263.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $278.67.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.1 %

Verisk Analytics stock traded up $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $267.62. The stock had a trading volume of 439,244 shares, compared to its average volume of 697,707. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.11 billion, a PE ratio of 43.44, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.95, a quick ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 12 month low of $215.32 and a 12 month high of $287.13. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $268.88 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $259.53.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.51 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.57 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Shareholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 25.32%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% 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.