Royal Bank of Canada Reiterates “Outperform” Rating for Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK)‘s stock had its “outperform” rating restated by research analysts at Royal Bank of Canada in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a $300.00 price objective on the business services provider’s stock. Royal Bank of Canada’s target price indicates a potential upside of 10.28% from the company’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on VRSK. Barclays upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Six investment 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 MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded down $0.97 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $272.03. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 67,443 shares, compared to its average volume of 678,423. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock has a market cap of $38.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $282.35 and its 200-day simple moving average is $274.49. Verisk Analytics has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $296.58.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 53,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Caprock Group LLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 137.6% in the second quarter. Caprock Group LLC now owns 6,275 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,691,000 after purchasing an additional 3,634 shares in the last quarter. Choreo LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $1,211,000. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 7.8% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 23,733 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $6,397,000 after acquiring an additional 1,713 shares during the last quarter. Malaga Cove Capital LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at $223,000. Finally, Angeles Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at about $249,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.