Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Tandem Investment Advisors Inc. decreased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 0.7% in the third quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 164,111 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,232 shares during the quarter. Verisk Analytics accounts for approximately 1.7% of Tandem Investment Advisors Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 29th largest holding. Tandem Investment Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $43,975,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $145,941,000 after purchasing an additional 203,951 shares in the last quarter. Swedbank AB purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at about $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 187.1% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 171,835 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $46,305,000 after purchasing an additional 111,992 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 7.4% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 1,618,266 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $436,204,000 after purchasing an additional 111,364 shares during the period. Finally, Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 33.7% during the 2nd quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 373,800 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $100,758,000 after purchasing an additional 94,300 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $280.34 on Friday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a twelve month low of $217.34 and a twelve month high of $287.13. The company’s 50 day moving average is $269.62 and its two-hundred day moving average is $263.70. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The company has a market cap of $39.59 billion, a PE ratio of 43.73, a P/E/G ratio of 3.50 and a beta of 0.86.

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, beating the consensus estimate 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 net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.52 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 24.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts have weighed in on VRSK shares. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price 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. Barclays boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

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.