Insider Selling: Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) CEO Sells 1,100 Shares of Stock

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.99, for a total transaction of $238,689.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 77,807 shares in the company, valued at $16,883,340.93. The trade was a 1.39% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded up $3.86 during trading hours on Tuesday, hitting $222.96. 1,885,670 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,039,896. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $236.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $274.46. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1-year low of $196.99 and a 1-year high of $322.92. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.99, a PEG ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.84. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.55, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.53.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $1.72 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.70 by $0.02. The company had revenue of $768.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $776.04 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 425.42% and a net margin of 30.42%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.67 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, December 15th. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.44%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on VRSK shares. UBS Group decreased 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $315.00 to $250.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Wolfe Research started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 price objective on the stock. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c)” rating on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Argus lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, seven have issued a Hold rating and three have assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $282.14.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 2nd quarter worth about $556,192,000. Nuveen LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at about $508,611,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Verisk Analytics by 631.0% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,415,439 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $422,676,000 after buying an additional 1,221,798 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 36.0% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 2,251,051 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $669,958,000 after buying an additional 596,225 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 334.5% during the third quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 754,548 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $188,237,000 after buying an additional 580,885 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.