Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Price Target Cut to $262.00 by Analysts at Evercore ISI

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) had its target price reduced by Evercore ISI from $292.00 to $262.00 in a report released on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. Evercore ISI currently has an in-line rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also recently commented on VRSK. Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Seaport Res Ptn raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, October 1st. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $340.00 to $334.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, September 17th. Wolfe Research assumed coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. They issued an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Finally, UBS Group lowered their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $306.55.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $243.36 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $34.00 billion, a PE ratio of 37.50, a P/E/G ratio of 3.42 and a beta of 0.85. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $258.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $285.86. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $239.78 and a fifty-two week high of $322.92. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th were issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date was Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.73%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Christopher John Perry purchased 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $259.80 per share, for a total transaction of $259,800.00. Following the completion of the acquisition, the director owned 1,773 shares in the company, valued at $460,625.40. This trade represents a 129.37% increase in their position. The purchase was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total transaction of $1,436,300.00. Following the sale, the insider owned 54,337 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,399,305. This represents a 9.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 8,220 shares of company stock valued at $2,182,727. 0.46% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 1.0% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,894,802 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $5,262,731,000 after acquiring an additional 161,213 shares during the last quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% in the first quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,235,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,558,067,000 after acquiring an additional 25,010 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 0.8% in the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 4,011,295 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,249,900,000 after acquiring an additional 33,213 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.0% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $669,958,000 after acquiring an additional 596,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at approximately $556,192,000. 90.00% of the stock is currently 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.