Wolfe Research Begins Coverage on Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Equities research analysts at Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) in a note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage set an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 price target on the business services provider’s stock. Wolfe Research’s price objective suggests a potential upside of 18.50% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently weighed in on the stock. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. UBS Group decreased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Robert W. Baird upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $335.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have issued a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $306.91.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK opened at $270.05 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.53, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34. Verisk Analytics has a 52-week low of $259.01 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a 50 day moving average of $283.79 and a two-hundred day moving average of $294.07. The company has a market cap of $37.73 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.81 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The company had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $268.00, for a total value of $80,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 15,465 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,144,620. This represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total transaction of $98,080.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 9,319 shares in the company, valued at $2,803,714.34. This represents a 3.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 25,621 shares of company stock valued at $7,574,943 over the last ninety days. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth $25,000. AlphaCore Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $27,000. Osterweis Capital Management Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $28,000. Spurstone Advisory Services LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth $29,000. Finally, NewSquare Capital LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 69.0% during the second quarter. NewSquare Capital LLC now owns 98 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $31,000 after purchasing an additional 40 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.