Bell Bank Sells 2,625 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Bell Bank trimmed its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 73.2% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 960 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 2,625 shares during the period. Bell Bank’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $257,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the company. Marshall Financial Group LLC increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 4,932 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,322,000 after purchasing an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% in the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,586 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares in the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.2% in the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 3,517 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $982,000 after buying an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 19.0% in the 1st quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $57,000 after purchasing an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ascent Group LLC increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.8% in the 2nd quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,465 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $664,000 after acquiring an additional 43 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on VRSK. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Six equities 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.80.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.7 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $290.04 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.25, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $270.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.74. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $291.42.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The company’s revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.54%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.