Pensionfund Sabic Buys New Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Pensionfund Sabic acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 5,200 shares of the business services provider's stock, valued at approximately $1,432,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter valued at $34,000. Carolina Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter worth about $50,000. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 101.5% in the third quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC now owns 276 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $74,000 after buying an additional 139 shares during the period. Quarry LP acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the third quarter valued at approximately $79,000. Finally, Quent Capital LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 418.8% in the 3rd quarter. Quent Capital LLC now owns 332 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $89,000 after acquiring an additional 268 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the topic of several research reports. Robert W. Baird upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an "in-line" rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Barclays boosted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Six 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $289.80.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed 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 Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 1.25 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of VRSK stock traded down $3.28 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $273.00. 860,701 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 888,400. The stock's 50-day moving average is $282.15 and its 200-day moving average is $274.46. The stock has a market cap of $38.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 42.59, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.88. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $722.19 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts forecast 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 was paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th were given a dividend of $0.39 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.57%. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is presently 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.