Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. Acquires New Stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Harel Insurance Investments & Financial Services Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The firm acquired 463 shares of the business services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $144,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in VRSK. Hantz Financial Services Inc. increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 62.7% during the 2nd quarter. Hantz Financial Services Inc. now owns 109 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $34,000 after buying an additional 42 shares in the last quarter. Trust Co. of Toledo NA OH bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $41,000. Wayfinding Financial LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Ameritas Advisory Services LLC bought a new position in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,000. Finally, GW&K Investment Management LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 186.7% during the 1st quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $51,000 after buying an additional 112 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have commented on the company. Royal Bank Of Canada reduced their target price on Verisk Analytics from $314.00 to $250.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Barclays raised Verisk Analytics from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $310.00 to $275.00 in a report on Thursday, October 30th. The Goldman Sachs Group reduced their target price on Verisk Analytics from $315.00 to $239.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on Verisk Analytics from $334.00 to $300.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a report on Friday, October 24th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have issued a Buy rating, six have issued a Hold rating and three have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $282.14.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock opened at $215.40 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $30.02 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.84, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 0.85. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 1 year low of $196.99 and a 1 year high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.55, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.53. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $247.45 and its 200-day moving average price is $279.75.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 29th. The business services provider reported $1.72 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.70 by $0.02. The firm had revenue of $768.30 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $776.04 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 425.42% and a net margin of 30.42%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.67 EPS. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, December 31st. Stockholders of record on Monday, December 15th will be paid a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.8%. The ex-dividend date is Monday, December 15th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 27.44%.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,100 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Monday, August 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.01, for a total transaction of $294,811.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 78,907 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,147,865.07. The trade was a 1.37% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 5,420 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $265.00, for a total value of $1,436,300.00. Following the transaction, the insider owned 54,337 shares in the company, valued at $14,399,305. This trade represents a 9.07% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last quarter, insiders bought 2,450 shares of company stock worth $574,463 and sold 8,520 shares worth $2,255,396. Corporate insiders own 0.46% 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.