Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.39

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Saturday, June 15th will be given a dividend of 0.39 per share by the business services provider on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, June 14th.

Verisk Analytics has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend annually for the last 5 consecutive years. Verisk Analytics has a payout ratio of 21.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Verisk Analytics to earn $7.21 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.6%.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ VRSK traded up $1.03 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $233.84. 1,538,553 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 896,634. The firm has a market cap of $33.38 billion, a PE ratio of 55.17, a PEG ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.79. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $198.40 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a quick ratio of 1.05 and a current ratio of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $231.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.05.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.52 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $699.07 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The firm’s revenue was up 8.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.29 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now directly 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 this hyperlink. In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company’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 sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,852,407.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 11,300 shares of company stock worth $2,647,952 in the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

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

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.