Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Reaches New 52-Week High After Dividend Announcement

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)’s stock price hit a new 52-week high during mid-day trading on Thursday after the company announced a dividend. The company traded as high as $291.97 and last traded at $291.97, with a volume of 937 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $290.04.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.56%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI reissued an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Six investment 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $39.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.41, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $271.13 and its 200 day moving average price is $266.05.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,289,184.64. This represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. FMR LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,237,700,000 after acquiring an additional 283,653 shares during the period. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,144,000 after acquiring an additional 261,961 shares during the period. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position 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 buying an additional 203,951 shares during the last quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP raised its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 46.7% in the third quarter. Two Sigma Advisers LP now owns 614,831 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $164,750,000 after buying an additional 195,700 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the first quarter valued at about $28,739,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.