Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Issues 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 (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11, Briefing.com reports. The business had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 268.19% and a net margin of 28.45%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.29 EPS. 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 Trading Up 1.5 %

VRSK opened at $237.33 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $231.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.03. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $205.70 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94, a current ratio of 1.09 and a quick ratio of 1.05.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Stockholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be given a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

VRSK has been the subject of several analyst reports. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America lowered Verisk Analytics from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI reiterated an “in-line” rating and set a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $252.21.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 12th. The shares were 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 sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,507 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the insider now owns 50,208 shares in the company, valued at $12,514,344. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total value of $1,510,461.86. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 12,140 shares in the company, valued at $2,829,348.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last 90 days. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to repurchase up to 2.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.