Morgan Stanley Raises Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Price Target to $300.00

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) had its price objective boosted by Morgan Stanley from $283.00 to $300.00 in a report published on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the business services provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Robert W. Baird raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $289.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $283.35 on Thursday. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $296.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The company has a market capitalization of $40.01 billion, a PE ratio of 44.20, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.87. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $279.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $272.64.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted 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 previous year, the company posted $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.55%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 24.34%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total value of $280,710.00. Following the completion of 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, 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 transaction of $57,298.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,608 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,471,535.92. The trade was a 1.27 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC raised its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,618,971 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,237,700,000 after acquiring an additional 283,653 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares in the last quarter. TD Asset Management Inc lifted its position 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 worth $405,030,000 after purchasing an additional 78,008 shares during the period. 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 buying an additional 78,376 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 8.4% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,103,628 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $297,491,000 after buying an additional 85,202 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.