King Luther Capital Management Corp Boosts Position in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK)

King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 2.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 164,767 shares of the business services provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,552 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $44,151,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter worth $31,000. Chilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the second quarter worth about $34,000. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the third quarter worth about $34,000. Rothschild Investment LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the second quarter valued at about $41,000. Finally, Kings Path Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 2nd quarter valued at about $46,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 90.00% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. This represents a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Lee Shavel sold 1,000 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $280.71, for a total transaction of $280,710.00. Following the transaction, 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 2,400 shares of company stock valued at $678,764 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, July 31st. 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 note on Thursday, October 17th. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $279.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft lifted their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 1st. Six investment 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK opened at $284.20 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $271.86 and its 200-day simple moving average is $267.79. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $291.42. 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 firm has a market cap of $40.13 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.34, a P/E/G ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.86.

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

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, December 31st. Investors of record on Friday, December 13th will be given 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 currently 24.34%.

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.