Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock Price

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) had its price target hoisted by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $283.00 to $300.00 in a research note issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the business services provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 4.93% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Barclays boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective 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 Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.3 %

Verisk Analytics stock traded up $0.89 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $285.91. The stock had a trading volume of 102,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 776,905. Verisk Analytics has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.37 billion, a PE ratio of 44.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.59 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $278.96 and its 200 day simple moving average is $272.16.

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

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % 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 the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $331,476,000 after buying an additional 78,376 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the third quarter worth approximately $229,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its stake 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. Unigestion Holding SA increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 77.5% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 114,351 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $30,641,000 after buying an additional 49,910 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.8% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 974 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $264,000 after buying an additional 45 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by 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.