William Blair Predicts Lower Earnings for Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Free Report) - Investment analysts at William Blair dropped their Q1 2025 earnings per share estimates for Verisk Analytics in a research note issued to investors on Thursday, February 27th. William Blair analyst A. Nicholas now anticipates that the business services provider will earn $1.66 per share for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $1.71. The consensus estimate for Verisk Analytics' current full-year earnings is $6.63 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Verisk Analytics' Q2 2025 earnings at $1.77 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.77 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $6.95 EPS.

Several other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an "outperform" rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird upped their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays lowered Verisk Analytics from an "overweight" rating to an "equal weight" rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Trading Up 1.5 %

VRSK stock traded up $4.42 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $301.33. The company had a trading volume of 990,293 shares, compared to its average volume of 747,157. The company has a current ratio of 0.82, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $302.25. The stock's 50 day moving average price is $284.30 and its 200 day moving average price is $278.42. The stock has a market cap of $42.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.01, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company's management believes its shares are undervalued.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.60%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics's previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 26.87%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total value of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Private Advisor Group LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 17.5% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,221 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $863,000 after acquiring an additional 479 shares during the last quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 5.9% in the 3rd quarter. Financial Advocates Investment Management now owns 1,659 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $444,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 11.0% in the 3rd quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 1,766 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $473,000 after acquiring an additional 175 shares during the last quarter. Nvwm LLC grew its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.3% in the 3rd quarter. Nvwm LLC now owns 6,086 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $1,631,000 after acquiring an additional 79 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 210,057 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $56,287,000 after buying an additional 34,455 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 90.00% 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.