Empowered Funds LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Empowered Funds LLC boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 7.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 2,258 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 150 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $605,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,941,000 after purchasing an additional 203,951 shares during the period. Swedbank AB purchased a new position in Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 187.1% in the second 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after acquiring an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 33.7% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 373,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $100,758,000 after acquiring an additional 94,300 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently weighed in on VRSK. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $290.73 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $291.42. The company has a market cap of $41.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $272.66 and its two-hundred day moving average is $268.42.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. Analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $286,490.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value 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 represents a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics 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.