Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Announces $0.39 Quarterly Dividend

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 24th, Zacks reports. Stockholders of record on Sunday, September 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.39 per share by the business services provider on Monday, September 30th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.57%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, September 13th.

Verisk Analytics has increased its dividend by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years. Verisk Analytics has a dividend payout ratio of 21.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Stock Performance

Shares of Verisk Analytics stock opened at $271.63 on Thursday. The stock has a market cap of $38.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 50.68, a PEG ratio of 3.44 and a beta of 0.86. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $271.91 and its 200 day moving average is $253.65. Verisk Analytics has a 1 year low of $215.32 and a 1 year high of $287.13. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.86, a current ratio of 0.95 and a quick ratio of 0.95.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, July 31st. The business services provider reported $1.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.64 by $0.10. The company had revenue of $716.80 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $722.45 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.03% and a return on equity of 252.11%. Verisk Analytics’s revenue was up 6.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.51 EPS. Sell-side analysts anticipate that Verisk Analytics will post 6.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on VRSK shares. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $250.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $255.00 to $285.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $273.54.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,033,483.40. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $262.31, for a total value of $52,462.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 16,608 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,356,444.48. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $272.22, for a total transaction of $88,743.72. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,470 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,033,483.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 726 shares of company stock valued at $196,682 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently 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.