Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK – Get Free Report) and Exponent (NASDAQ:EXPO – Get Free Report) are both industrials companies, but which is the superior stock? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, valuation and institutional ownership.
Volatility and Risk
Verisk Analytics has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Exponent has a beta of 0.69, meaning that its stock price is 31% less volatile than the S&P 500.
Valuation and Earnings
This table compares Verisk Analytics and Exponent”s revenue, earnings per share and valuation.
| Gross Revenue | Price/Sales Ratio | Net Income | Earnings Per Share | Price/Earnings Ratio | |
| Verisk Analytics | $3.07 billion | 8.30 | $908.30 million | $6.51 | 30.09 |
| Exponent | $582.01 million | 6.33 | $106.01 million | $2.23 | 34.72 |
Verisk Analytics has higher revenue and earnings than Exponent. Verisk Analytics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Exponent, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
Dividends
Verisk Analytics pays an annual dividend of $2.00 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Exponent pays an annual dividend of $1.24 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.6%. Verisk Analytics pays out 30.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Exponent pays out 55.6% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Verisk Analytics has raised its dividend for 6 consecutive years and Exponent has raised its dividend for 12 consecutive years. Exponent is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Analyst Recommendations
This is a breakdown of recent recommendations for Verisk Analytics and Exponent, as provided by MarketBeat.
| Sell Ratings | Hold Ratings | Buy Ratings | Strong Buy Ratings | Rating Score | |
| Verisk Analytics | 0 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 2.53 |
| Exponent | 0 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2.50 |
Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus price target of $224.79, suggesting a potential upside of 14.76%. Exponent has a consensus price target of $81.00, suggesting a potential upside of 4.61%. Given Verisk Analytics’ stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, equities research analysts clearly believe Verisk Analytics is more favorable than Exponent.
Profitability
This table compares Verisk Analytics and Exponent’s net margins, return on equity and return on assets.
| Net Margins | Return on Equity | Return on Assets | |
| Verisk Analytics | 28.24% | -239.55% | 18.56% |
| Exponent | 17.67% | 31.48% | 15.53% |
Institutional & Insider Ownership
90.0% of Verisk Analytics shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 92.4% of Exponent shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Verisk Analytics shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 1.7% of Exponent shares are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that hedge funds, endowments and large money managers believe a stock will outperform the market over the long term.
Summary
Verisk Analytics beats Exponent on 11 of the 17 factors compared between the two stocks.
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. The company also provides life insurance solutions for transforming current workflows in life insurance underwriting, claim insights, policy administration, unclaimed property/equity, compliance and fraud detection, and actuarial and portfolio modeling; Marketing Solutions, such as compliant, real-time decisioning, profitability, and risk assessment for inbound consumer interactions; and international underwriting and claims solutions. In addition, it offers claims insurance solutions, which provides analytics in fraud detection, compliance reporting, subrogation liability assessment, litigation, and repair cost estimation and valuation solutions; and casualty solutions, such as compliance, casualty claims decision support, and workflow automation solutions. Further, the company supplies software to the specialty insurance market. The company was founded in 1971 and is headquartered in Jersey City, New Jersey.
About Exponent
Exponent, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, operates as a science and engineering consulting company in the United States and internationally. The company operates in two segments, Engineering and Other Scientific, and Environmental and Health. The Engineering and Other Scientific segment provides services in the areas of biomechanics, biomedical engineering and sciences, buildings and structures, civil engineering, construction consulting, data sciences, electrical engineering and computer science, human factors, materials and corrosion engineering, mechanical engineering, polymer science and materials chemistry, thermal sciences, and vehicle engineering. The Environmental and Health segment offers services in the areas of chemical regulation and food safety, ecological and biological sciences, environmental and earth sciences, and health sciences. The company offers approximately 90 technical disciplines to solve pressing and complicated challenges facing stakeholders. It serves clients in chemical, construction, consumer products, energy, food, beverage and nutrition, government, life sciences, insurance, manufacturing, technology, industrial equipment, transportation, and other sectors of the economy. The company was formerly known as The Failure Group, Inc. and changed its name to Exponent, Inc. in 1998. The company was founded in 1967 and is headquartered in Menlo Park, California.
Receive News & Ratings for Verisk Analytics Daily - Enter your email address below to receive a concise daily summary of the latest news and analysts' ratings for Verisk Analytics and related companies with MarketBeat.com's FREE daily email newsletter.
