The Vanguard Group, Inc. recently announced the acquisition of new stake in Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK). The institutional investor has increased its shareholding in the Industrials company by 1.01% to 16.67 million shares with purchase of 0.17 million shares. This fresh investment now brings its stake to 10.66% valued currently at $2.85 billion. In addition, BlackRock Fund Advisors raised its holdings by 0.66 million to 8.5 million shares. And SSgA Funds Management, Inc. has lifted its position by 0.04% or 2864.0 shares – to 6.46 million shares.
With over 1.71 million Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) shares trading Monday and a closing price of $180.96 on the day, the dollar volume was approximately $310.04 million. The shares have shown a negative half year performance of -5.77% and its price on 03/13/23 gained nearly 0.46%. Currently, there are 156.03M common shares owned by the public and among those 153.15M shares have been available to trade.
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An analysis of what Wall Street brokers have to say about the expected price targets for this stock gives us this picture: 18 analysts who have offered their price forecasts for VRSK have a consensus price objective of $197.07. The analysts have set the share’s price value over the next 12 months at a high of $220.00 and a low of $167.00. The average price target is 8.08% above its recent price level and a downside to the estimated low will see the stock lose -8.36% over that period. But an upside of 17.75% will see the stock hit the forecast high price target while median target price for the stock is $195.00.
Insiders at the company have transacted a total of 96 times over the past 12 months, according to data filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). 50 of these insider trades were purchases, accounting for 620,869 shares. Insider sales of the common stock occurred on 46 occasions, with total insider shares sold totaling 545,065 shares.
The top 3 mutual fund holders in Verisk Analytics Inc. are Vanguard Total Stock Market Index, Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund, and Vanguard 500 Index Fund. Vanguard Total Stock Market Index owns 4.79 million shares of the company’s stock, all valued at over $819.81 million. The company bought an additional 37704.0 shares recently to bring their total holdings to about 3.06% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard Mid Cap Index Fund bought 5851.0 shares to see its total holdings expand to 3.65 million shares valued at over $623.94 million and representing 2.33% of the shares outstanding. Vanguard 500 Index Fund bought 8593.0 shares to bring its total holdings to over 3.62 million shares at a value of $619.81 million. Vanguard 500 Index Fund now owns shares totaling to 2.32% of the shares outstanding.
Shares of Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) opened at $180.03, down -$0.11 from a prior closing price of $180.14. However, the script later moved the day high at 184.37, up 0.46%. The company’s stock has a 5-day price change of -3.59% and -0.67% over the past three months. VRSK shares are trading 2.57% year to date (YTD), with the 12-month market performance down to -2.10% lower. It has a 12-month low price of $156.05 and touched a high of $222.11 over the same period. VRSK has an average intraday trading volume of 969.01K shares. The stock is trading above its simple moving averages at the SMA20, SMA50, and SMA200, as the current price level is off by 1.48%, 0.69%, and 0.83% respectively.
Institutional ownership of Verisk Analytics Inc. (NASDAQ: VRSK) shares accounts for 93.80% of the company’s 156.03M shares outstanding. Mutual fund holders own 32.69%, while other institutional holders and individual stakeholders account for 59.57% and 1.93% respectively.
It has a market capitalization of $28.47B and a beta (3y monthly) value of 0.84. The stock’s trailing 12-month PE ratio is 27.76, while the earnings-per-share (ttm) stands at $6.52. The company has a PEG of 2.48 and a Quick Ratio of 0.40 with the debt-to-equity ratio at 2.14. Price movements for the stock have been influenced by the stock’s volatility, which stands at 2.42% over the week and 2.19% over the month.
Analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) will achieve an EPS of $1.18 for the current quarter, $1.24 for the next quarter and $5.58 for 2023. The lowest estimate earnings-per-share for the quarter is $1.08 while analysts give the company a high EPS estimate of $1.38. Comparatively, EPS for the current quarter was $1.47 a year ago. Earnings per share for the fiscal year are expected to increase by 76.40%, and 17.50% over the next financial year. EPS should shrink at an annualized rate of 11.20% over the next five years, compared to 18.90% over the past 5-year period.
If you are looking to buy this stock, then you may note that the average analyst recommendation by 18 brokerage firm advisors rate Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) as a “Moderate Buy” at a consensus score of 2.40. Specifically, 6 Wall Street analysts polled rate the stock as a buy, while 7 of the 18 advise that investors “hold,” and 1 rated it as a “Sell.”
Morgan Stanley coverage for the Verisk Analytics Inc. (VRSK) stock in a research note released on November 08, 2022 offered a Equal-Weight rating with a price target of $170. Jefferies was of a view on October 25, 2022 that the stock is Buy, while Deutsche Bank gave the stock Buy rating on March 30, 2022, issuing a price target of $255. BofA Securities on their part issued Underperform rating on March 11, 2022.
