Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) Updates FY24 Earnings Guidance

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) updated its FY24 earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $6.30-6.60 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $6.52. The company issued revenue guidance of $2.84-2.90 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $2.88 billion. Verisk Analytics also updated its FY 2024 guidance to 6.300-6.600 EPS.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several brokerages have commented on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets upped their target price 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 downgraded shares of Verisk Analytics from a buy rating to a neutral rating and lowered their target price for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an in-line rating and issued a $250.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, March 26th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $252.21.

Verisk Analytics Stock Up 1.5 %

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $237.33 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $231.57 and a 200-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. The company has a market capitalization of $33.86 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 44.28, a P/E/G ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 28.45% and a return on equity of 268.19%. The business had revenue of $704.00 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $699.07 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.29 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Verisk Analytics Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, June 28th. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be issued a dividend of $0.39 per share. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.66%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 29.10%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 21st that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 6,481 shares of the 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is owned by 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.