Assetmark Inc. Buys 513 Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Assetmark Inc. boosted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 8.3% during the 3rd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,730 shares of the business services provider’s stock after buying an additional 513 shares during the quarter. Assetmark Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $1,803,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 85.9% in the first quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 2,762 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $651,000 after purchasing an additional 1,276 shares in the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 12.9% in the 1st quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC now owns 966 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $228,000 after buying an additional 110 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 4.7% during the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 3,532 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $833,000 after buying an additional 160 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics in the 1st quarter valued at $907,000. Finally, State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 15.8% in the first quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 183,252 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $43,198,000 after acquiring an additional 24,977 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have issued reports on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 13th. BMO Capital Markets boosted 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. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Finally, Barclays raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company 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 assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of VRSK opened at $290.04 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a PE ratio of 45.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 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 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $291.42. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $270.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $265.74.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The business 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.52 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts predict 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. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 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.