Ascent Group LLC Raises Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Ascent Group LLC boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 38.2% in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 3,568 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 987 shares during the quarter. Ascent Group LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,062,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,733,589 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,980,251,000 after purchasing an additional 239,483 shares during the period. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the 1st quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,235,090 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,558,067,000 after purchasing an additional 25,010 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $669,958,000 after purchasing an additional 596,225 shares during the period. Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at about $508,611,000. Finally, Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,704,246 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $507,219,000 after purchasing an additional 283,238 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 1.6%

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $268.66 on Wednesday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $281.36 and its 200-day moving average price is $293.58. 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, Inc. has a 52 week low of $259.01 and a 52 week high of $322.92. The company has a market capitalization of $37.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 41.40, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.87 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 for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.77 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.74 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Investors of record on Monday, September 15th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.7%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is currently 27.73%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research firms have issued reports on VRSK. UBS Group cut their price target on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research began coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, September 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 price target for the company. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price target on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 31st. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $306.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $300.86, for a total value of $98,080.36. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 9,319 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,803,714.34. The trade was a 3.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total value of $294,811.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,147,865.07. This represents a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 25,621 shares of company stock worth $7,574,943 in the last quarter. 0.46% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.