Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Stock Rating Lowered by Barclays

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) was downgraded by Barclays from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating in a research note issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They currently have a $310.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock. Barclays‘s price objective points to a potential upside of 10.55% from the stock’s current price.

VRSK has been the subject of a number of other reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, two have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $293.11.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $280.42 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $39.60 billion, a PE ratio of 43.75, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $282.76 and a 200-day moving average price of $274.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $725.30 million for 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 was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.52 EPS. Equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 3,579 shares of company stock worth $1,000,407 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter valued at about $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $50,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 101.5% during the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 139 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter valued at about $79,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 418.8% during the third quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 332 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $89,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

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.