Townsquare Capital LLC Has $4.39 Million Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Townsquare Capital LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 16,381 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 1,489 shares during the quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $4,390,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. FMR LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd 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 period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second 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 in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $405,030,000 after buying an additional 78,008 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,150 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $214,676,000 after buying an additional 8,262 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have weighed in on VRSK. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Six equities 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.1 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $294.56 on Friday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $274.83 and a 200 day simple moving average of $269.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.95, a PEG 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. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.