Short Interest in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Grows By 46.2%

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of November. As of November 15th, there was short interest totalling 2,660,000 shares, a growth of 46.2% from the October 31st total of 1,820,000 shares. Currently, 1.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 670,700 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a "strong-buy" rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets increased 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. Robert W. Baird boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $285.80.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the 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 owns 15,608 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares of the company's stock, valued at $14,923,385.73. This represents a 1.85 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 6.8% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,231,201 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $331,476,000 after acquiring an additional 78,376 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $229,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 188.2% in the 3rd quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 25,637 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $7,454,000 after buying an additional 16,742 shares during the last quarter. Unigestion Holding SA raised its stake in Verisk Analytics by 77.5% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 114,351 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $30,641,000 after buying an additional 49,910 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rehmann Capital Advisory Group boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 4.8% in the third quarter. Rehmann Capital Advisory Group now owns 974 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $264,000 after acquiring an additional 45 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 90.00% of the company's stock.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:VRSK traded down $0.35 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $294.21. 363,155 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 601,890. Verisk Analytics has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $296.58. 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 50 day moving average price of $275.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $269.93. The firm has a market capitalization of $41.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.90, a PEG ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. The business's revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors 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 yield of 0.53%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics's payout ratio is currently 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.