B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG Makes New $8.37 Million Investment in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

B. Metzler seel. Sohn & Co. Holding AG acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 31,226 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $8,367,000.

Other hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 292.4% in the 1st quarter. UniSuper Management Pty Ltd now owns 5,827 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,374,000 after acquiring an additional 4,342 shares during the last quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 109.2% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 12,729 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $3,000,000 after acquiring an additional 6,645 shares during the period. Lake Street Advisors Group LLC bought a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter valued at about $266,000. MQS Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $226,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth about $49,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK opened at $281.64 on Wednesday. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $291.42. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The stock has a market cap of $39.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.94, a P/E/G ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $271.61 and its 200-day moving average price is $267.68.

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

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 directly owns 15,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,471,535.92. This represents a 1.27 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $286.49, for a total value of $286,490.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 54,163 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $15,517,157.87. The trade was a 1.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts have commented on VRSK shares. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 1st. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average 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.