Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC Raises Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 12,740 shares of the business services provider's stock after purchasing an additional 2,200 shares during the period. Douglass Winthrop Advisors LLC's holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $3,414,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Marshall Financial Group LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 0.8% during the third quarter. Marshall Financial Group LLC now owns 4,932 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,322,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Signaturefd LLC raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.5% during the third quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 2,586 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $693,000 after acquiring an additional 38 shares during the last quarter. Brookstone Capital Management raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.2% during the second quarter. Brookstone Capital Management now owns 3,517 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $982,000 after acquiring an additional 41 shares during the last quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.0% during the first quarter. EverSource Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 263 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $57,000 after buying an additional 42 shares during the period. Finally, Ascent Group LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.8% during the second quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 2,465 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $664,000 after buying an additional 43 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. BMO Capital Markets increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Evercore ISI restated an "in-line" rating and issued a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock traded up $0.76 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $291.49. The company's stock had a trading volume of 709,062 shares, compared to its average volume of 785,657. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $293.19. The company has a market capitalization of $41.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.47, a P/E/G ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.86. The stock's fifty day simple moving average is $273.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $268.91. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors 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 dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 53,163 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total transaction of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. This 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 ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

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.