Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. Purchases 658 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 331,342 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 658 shares during the quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. owned about 0.23% of Verisk Analytics worth $88,786,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $46,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % 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 this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.7 %

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $290.04 on Thursday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a fifty day moving average of $270.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $265.74. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.25, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $291.42.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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