Griffin Asset Management Inc. Trims Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Griffin Asset Management Inc. cut its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 1.0% in the 2nd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 12,681 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 125 shares during the quarter. Griffin Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,950,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Louisbourg Investments Inc. purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 186.7% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after acquiring an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 price objective on Verisk Analytics and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Monday, August 4th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Wolfe Research started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group dropped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Finally, Seaport Res Ptn upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating, four have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $311.00.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK opened at $243.06 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $33.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 37.45, a P/E/G ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a current ratio of 1.53 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $258.97 and its 200 day simple moving average is $286.52. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $239.83 and a 1-year high of $322.92.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The company’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.74 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, Director Christopher John Perry purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were acquired at an average price of $259.80 per share, for a total transaction of $259,800.00. Following the acquisition, the director directly owned 1,773 shares in the company, valued at approximately $460,625.40. The trade was a 129.37% increase in their position. The acquisition was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of the company’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 value of $1,436,300.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 54,337 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,399,305. This represents a 9.07% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 8,520 shares of company stock worth $2,273,891. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.