Advisors Capital Management LLC Has $2.07 Million Stock Holdings in Verisk Analytics, Inc. $VRSK

Advisors Capital Management LLC cut its stake in Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) by 14.4% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 6,956 shares of the business services provider’s stock after selling 1,168 shares during the quarter. Advisors Capital Management LLC’s holdings in Verisk Analytics were worth $2,070,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of VRSK. Louisbourg Investments Inc. acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth $25,000. Global Financial Private Client LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 966.7% during the first quarter. Global Financial Private Client LLC now owns 128 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $38,000 after buying an additional 116 shares during the last quarter. Wayfinding Financial LLC acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth $48,000. GW&K Investment Management LLC increased its position in Verisk Analytics by 186.7% during the first quarter. GW&K Investment Management LLC now owns 172 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $51,000 after buying an additional 112 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the first quarter worth $52,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Christopher John Perry purchased 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, August 13th. The shares were bought at an average cost of $259.80 per share, with a total value of $259,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 1,773 shares in the company, valued at $460,625.40. This trade represents a 129.37% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $268.00, for a total value of $80,400.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer directly owned 15,465 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,144,620. This trade represents a 1.90% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 13,965 shares of company stock valued at $3,925,916 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.46% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

VRSK has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wolfe Research initiated coverage on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, September 3rd. They set an “outperform” rating and a $320.00 target price on the stock. UBS Group lowered their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $320.00 to $300.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Raymond James Financial set a $315.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Monday, August 4th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $317.00 to $319.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 31st. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, five have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $306.91.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $262.20 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $36.63 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.40, a P/E/G ratio of 3.77 and a beta of 0.86. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $279.01 and its 200-day moving average is $292.89. Verisk Analytics, Inc. has a 52-week low of $259.01 and a 52-week high of $322.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34, a quick ratio of 1.53 and a current ratio of 1.53.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $772.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 460.89% and a net margin of 30.67%.The firm’s revenue was up 7.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.74 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics has set its FY 2025 guidance at 6.800-7.000 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics, Inc. will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, September 30th. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.73%.

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.