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

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) issued an update on its FY 2024 earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of 6.300-6.600 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS 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.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Verisk Analytics stock traded up $3.57 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $237.33. 1,127,556 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,025,848. The company has a market cap of $33.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $231.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $236.03. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 9.94. Verisk Analytics has a 12-month low of $205.70 and a 12-month high of $251.98.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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 was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.29 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current year.

Verisk Analytics Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Shareholders 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 yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.10%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the business’s 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 owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,531 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $236.12, for a total transaction of $361,499.72. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 50,973 shares in the company, valued at $12,035,744.76. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.