Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Updates FY 2024 Earnings Guidance

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) updated its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of 6.300-6.600 for the period, compared to the consensus earnings per share estimate of 6.510. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.8 billion-$2.9 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.9 billion. Verisk Analytics also updated its FY24 guidance to $6.30-6.60 EPS.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on VRSK. Bank of America downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a buy rating to a neutral rating and reduced their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Evercore ISI reiterated an in-line rating and issued a $250.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, March 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a report on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $252.21.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK traded up $3.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $237.33. The company had a trading volume of 1,127,556 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,025,848. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $231.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $236.03. The company has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a PE ratio of 44.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.79. 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 has a one year low of $205.70 and a one year high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.29 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.53 EPS for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

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 paid a $0.39 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.66%. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally a sign that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,829,348.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $233.06, for a total transaction of $1,510,461.86. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly 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 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.