Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Shares Sold by Barclays PLC

Barclays PLC lessened its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 44.6% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 418,608 shares of the business services provider's stock after selling 337,594 shares during the period. Barclays PLC owned about 0.30% of Verisk Analytics worth $112,169,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of the stock. FMR LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $1,237,700,000 after buying an additional 283,653 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $436,204,000 after buying an additional 111,364 shares during the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 5.5% during the 2nd quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $405,030,000 after buying an additional 78,008 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.4% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 801,150 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $214,676,000 after buying an additional 8,262 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. This trade represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This trade represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target 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. BMO Capital Markets upped their price target 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. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

VRSK traded down $1.66 on Wednesday, hitting $285.02. 557,490 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 779,771. The business's fifty day moving average is $278.61 and its 200 day moving average is $272.07. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.60 and a beta of 0.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 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 for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

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.