<div id="readability-page-1"><p>Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) has been given an average rating of &#34;Hold&#34; by the ten analysts that are  covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst  has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, six have given a hold recommendation and three have given a buy recommendation to  the company. The average 12-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $297.40.</p><div><p><span></span><span>Get <strong>Verisk Analytics</strong> alerts:</span></p></div><p>A number of brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Royal Bank of Canada  reaffirmed an &#34;outperform&#34; rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Wells Fargo &amp; Company decreased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an &#34;overweight&#34; rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays cut Verisk Analytics from an &#34;overweight&#34; rating to an &#34;equal weight&#34; rating and set a $310.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Bank of America started coverage on Verisk Analytics in a research report on Thursday, April 10th. They set an &#34;underperform&#34; rating and a $280.00 target price for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a &#34;market perform&#34; rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th.</p><p><b>View Our Latest Research Report on Verisk Analytics</b></p><h2>Verisk Analytics Stock Performance</h2><p>Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $293.90 on Friday. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $233.78 and a 52 week high of $306.68. 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 business has a 50 day moving average price of $291.45 and a 200-day moving average price of $285.46. The company has a market cap of $41.13 billion, a PE ratio of 45.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.88. </p><p>Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%.  Equities analysts anticipate that  Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year. </p><p>Verisk Analytics announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in  outstanding  shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership believes its stock is undervalued. </p><h2>Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend</h2><p>The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th were given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.61%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend  was Friday, March 14th. This is a positive change from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 26.87%. </p><h2>Insider Activity</h2><p>In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 300 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.38, for a total transaction of $88,614.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 16,665 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,922,507.70. The trade was a 1.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 3,837 shares of company stock valued at $1,121,618 over the last quarter. Company insiders own  0.46% of the company's stock. </p><h2>Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics</h2><p>Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank purchased a new position in  Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $526,676,000.  GAMMA Investing LLC grew its position in shares of  Verisk Analytics by 36,332.8% during the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 1,204,468 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $358,474,000 after purchasing an additional 1,201,162 shares in the last quarter.  Amundi increased its holdings in shares of  Verisk Analytics by 52.4% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 1,252,532 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $351,226,000 after purchasing an additional 430,719 shares during the period.  Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new stake in  Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at $110,094,000.  Finally, Proficio Capital Partners LLC grew its position in  Verisk Analytics by 31,634.6% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 394,461 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $108,646,000 after buying an additional 393,218 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors. </p><h2>About Verisk Analytics</h2> (Get Free Report<p>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.</p><h2>Featured Articles</h2><ul><li>Five stocks we like better than Verisk Analytics</li><li>How to Plot Fibonacci Price Inflection Levels </li><li>Meta Takes A Bow With Q1 Earnings - Watch For Tariff Impact in Q2</li><li>What does consumer price index measure? </li><li>Amazon Earnings: 2 Reasons to Love It, 1 Reason to Be Cautious</li><li>How to Know if a Stock Pays Dividends and When They Are Paid Out</li><li>Palantir Earnings: 1 Bullish Signal and 1 Area of Concern</li></ul><p><img src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://www.marketbeat.com/scripts/RatingsChart.ashx/query-UHJlZml4PU5BU0RBUSZTeW1ib2w9VlJTSw?x-oss-process=image/auto-orient,1/interlace,1/resize,w_1440,h_1440/quality,q_95/format,jpg" width="600" height="385" original-src="https://imageproxy.pbkrs.com/https://www.marketbeat.com/scripts/RatingsChart.ashx/query-UHJlZml4PU5BU0RBUSZTeW1ib2w9VlJTSw"/></p><p><em>This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest and most accurate reporting. This story was reviewed by MarketBeat's editorial team prior to publication. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.</em></p><h2>Should You Invest $1,000 in Verisk Analytics Right Now?</h2><p>Before you consider Verisk Analytics, you'll want to hear this.</p><p>MarketBeat keeps track of Wall Street's top-rated and best performing research analysts and the stocks they recommend to their clients on a daily basis. MarketBeat has identified the five stocks that top analysts are quietly whispering to their clients to buy now before the broader market catches on... and Verisk Analytics wasn't on the list.</p><p>While Verisk Analytics currently has a Hold rating among analysts, top-rated analysts believe these five stocks are better buys.</p><p>View The Five Stocks Here</p>                  </div>

VRSK

<p>Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from ten analysts. The average 12-month price target is $297.40, with one sell, six hold, and three buy recommendations. Recent reports include Royal Bank of Canada's $300 target and Barclays' downgrade to equal weight with a $310 target. The company has a market cap of $41.13 billion and reported $1.61 EPS, beating estimates. It also initiated a $1 billion stock repurchase plan and increased its quarterly dividend to $0.45 per share.</p>

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Given Consensus Rating of "Hold" by Analysts