State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D Acquires 381 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.8% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 51,125 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 381 shares during the quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $13,699,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,941,000 after acquiring an additional 203,951 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 187.1% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $46,305,000 after acquiring an additional 111,992 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 33.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 373,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $100,758,000 after purchasing an additional 94,300 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the subject of several analyst reports. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Barclays upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, 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 research note on Thursday, October 17th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $284.98 on Monday. 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 business’s fifty day moving average is $270.04 and its 200 day moving average is $264.53. The company has a market capitalization of $40.24 billion, a PE ratio of 44.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.58 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $287.21.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during 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%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.52 EPS. Sell-side 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 declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.