Royal London Asset Management Ltd. Has $14.58 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Royal London Asset Management Ltd. cut its holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.2% in the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 54,072 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 135 shares during the quarter. Royal London Asset Management Ltd.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $14,575,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 16,407,133 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,919,008,000 after buying an additional 170,620 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in Verisk Analytics in the fourth quarter valued at about $374,530,000. TD Asset Management Inc boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 5.5% in the second quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,502,614 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $405,030,000 after acquiring an additional 78,008 shares during the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 90.5% in the fourth quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,141,516 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $272,663,000 after acquiring an additional 542,432 shares during the last quarter. Finally, GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd boosted its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 1.1% in the first quarter. GUARDCAP ASSET MANAGEMENT Ltd now owns 1,137,069 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $268,041,000 after acquiring an additional 12,231 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total value of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,033,483.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 726 shares of company stock valued at $196,682. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research firms recently issued reports on VRSK. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $285.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and issued a $268.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, July 9th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $273.54.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.8 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $269.37 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $215.32 and a fifty-two week high of $287.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $38.36 billion, a PE ratio of 50.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $271.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $253.76.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.64 by $0.10. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 252.11% and a net margin of 32.03%. The business had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.45 million. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.51 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.2% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts expect that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, September 30th. Investors of record on Sunday, September 15th will be given a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.58%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.10%.

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.