D.A. Davidson & CO. Has $2 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

D.A. Davidson & CO. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 4.4% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 7,453 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 317 shares during the period. D.A. Davidson & CO.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,997,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of VRSK. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its stake in Verisk Analytics by 131.6% during the first quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 45,960 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $10,832,000 after buying an additional 26,115 shares in the last quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 29.5% during the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 1,623 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $383,000 after acquiring an additional 370 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 164.0% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 6,193 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $1,459,000 after acquiring an additional 3,847 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank increased its stake in Verisk Analytics by 3.4% in the first quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 34,857 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $8,217,000 after acquiring an additional 1,140 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.0% during the first quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 19,088 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $4,500,000 after purchasing an additional 914 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Barclays lifted their price target 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Six research 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. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 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 value of $286,490.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,517,157.87. This represents a 1.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, 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 Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $294.21 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $41.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.90, a P/E/G ratio of 3.69 and a beta of 0.86. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $296.58. The company’s fifty day moving average is $275.42 and its 200 day moving average is $269.93.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.52 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.53%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 24.34%.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.