Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Beats Estimates By $0.11 EPS

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) issued its earnings results on Wednesday. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11, Briefing.com reports. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The firm had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. Verisk Analytics updated its FY24 guidance to $6.30-6.60 EPS and its FY 2024 guidance to 6.300-6.600 EPS.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Verisk Analytics stock traded down $0.55 during trading on Thursday, reaching $232.26. The company had a trading volume of 210,699 shares, compared to its average volume of 887,301. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $231.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $236.05. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.15 billion, a PE ratio of 55.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics has a 1-year low of $198.40 and a 1-year high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.39 dividend. This is a boost from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.34. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is presently 37.05%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VRSK has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. BMO Capital Markets raised their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday. Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, Bank of America cut Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.21.

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total transaction of $375,619.75. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, February 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $249.25, for a total value of $375,619.75. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 50,208 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $12,514,344. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Company 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.