Vontobel Holding Ltd. Sells 71 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Vontobel Holding Ltd. decreased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.1% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 67,215 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 71 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $18,011,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. HighPoint Advisor Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $499,000. Nomura Holdings Inc. bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter worth $698,000. Kapitalo Investimentos Ltda purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at about $69,000. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.9% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,521 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $359,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Alaska Permanent Fund Corp purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter worth $105,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK opened at $270.60 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.54 billion, a PE ratio of 43.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The business’s 50-day moving average is $268.76 and its two-hundred day moving average is $259.04. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $215.32 and a 1 year high of $287.13.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. The firm had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.51 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 15th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 25.32%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada restated an “outperform” rating and set a $268.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $276.69.

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.