Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. Acquires 236 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Brown Brothers Harriman & Co. lifted its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 11.2% in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 2,335 shares of the business services provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 236 shares during the period. Brown Brothers Harriman & Co.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $626,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. 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 bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics during the third quarter valued at $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter valued at $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth $46,000. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $294.75 on Wednesday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $273.66 and its 200-day moving average price is $269.24. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.10. 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 company has a market cap of $41.62 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.98, a PEG ratio of 3.65 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business 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. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 24.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. BMO Capital Markets boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target 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. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

About Verisk Analytics

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.