Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Position Lifted by Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.

Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. raised its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 133.1% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 83,762 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 47,833 shares during the period. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $23,154,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Czech National Bank boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.7% in the third quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 29,013 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $7,774,000 after purchasing an additional 1,824 shares during the period. GAMMA Investing LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 22.5% in the 3rd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 2,761 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $740,000 after buying an additional 508 shares during the period. City Holding Co. grew its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.4% during the 3rd quarter. City Holding Co. now owns 4,494 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,204,000 after buying an additional 62 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 5.8% during the third quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 2,020 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $537,000 after acquiring an additional 110 shares during the period. Finally, USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the third quarter worth about $1,336,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada reissued an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 12th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $291.64 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $281.39 and its 200 day simple moving average is $275.36. The stock has a market capitalization of $41.18 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.50, a PEG ratio of 3.30 and a beta of 0.89. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $217.34 and a 52-week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 5,490 shares of company stock worth $1,541,570 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.