Values First Advisors Inc. Invests $136,000 in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Values First Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund purchased 508 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $136,000.

Several other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 26,695.7% during the third quarter. International Assets Investment Management LLC now owns 31,083 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $8,329,000 after purchasing an additional 30,967 shares during the period. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 22.3% during the 3rd quarter. Commerzbank Aktiengesellschaft FI now owns 1,261 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $338,000 after acquiring an additional 230 shares during the period. Lecap Asset Management Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $4,540,000. GAM Holding AG increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.5% in the third quarter. GAM Holding AG now owns 17,949 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $4,810,000 after acquiring an additional 777 shares during the period. Finally, Private Advisor Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 17.5% during the third quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,221 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $863,000 after purchasing an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. BMO Capital Markets dropped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $278.00 to $263.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. UBS Group upped their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Barclays boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $278.67.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $264.65 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.76 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 49.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $215.32 and a 52 week high of $287.13. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $268.97 and a 200-day simple moving average of $260.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.95, a current ratio of 0.95 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. The business had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. The business’s revenue was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.51 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.57 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate 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.