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

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders 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 dividend yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th.

Verisk Analytics has increased its dividend by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 5 years. Verisk Analytics has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities 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 VRSK traded up $1.03 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $233.84. 1,538,553 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 896,634. The company has a quick ratio of 1.05, a current ratio of 1.05 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85. The firm has a market cap of $33.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 55.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.79. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $231.69 and its 200-day simple moving average is $236.05. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $198.40 and a 52 week high of $251.98.

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

Insider Activity at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total value of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 51,715 shares in the company, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that permits the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the business services provider to purchase up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

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