B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Purchases Shares of 31,226 Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund acquired 31,226 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $8,367,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $405,030,000 after purchasing an additional 78,008 shares during the last quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the first quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,137,069 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $268,041,000 after acquiring an additional 12,231 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares during the period. Finally, Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 6.7% during the second quarter. Kayne Anderson Rudnick Investment Management LLC now owns 613,185 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $165,284,000 after buying an additional 38,258 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Six equities research 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 company currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $286,490.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $2.56 during midday trading on Wednesday, reaching $284.20. 427,868 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 787,975. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $291.42. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.51 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $271.86 and a 200 day moving average price of $267.79.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio is presently 24.34%.

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.