Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board Makes New Investment in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Ontario Teachers Pension Plan Board bought a new stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund bought 1,497 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $401,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Mizuho Securities USA LLC lifted its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 2,380.6% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 272,965 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $73,144,000 after purchasing an additional 261,961 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in Verisk Analytics by 60.4% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 541,426 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $145,941,000 after purchasing an additional 203,951 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter worth $28,739,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its position in 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 buying an additional 111,992 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake 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 valued at $436,204,000 after buying an additional 111,364 shares during the period. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.1 %

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $290.73 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $272.66 and its 200-day moving average is $268.27. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $291.42. The firm has a market cap of $41.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

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 paid a $0.39 dividend. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 13th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 24.34%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on VRSK shares. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, August 1st. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 31st. Barclays raised 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. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Six investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $285.80.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 53,163 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,923,385.73. The trade was a 1.85 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $57,298.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now 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 disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 2,400 shares of company stock worth $678,764 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.