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

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) announced a quarterly dividend on Saturday, November 16th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of 0.39 per share by the business services provider on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.56%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th.

Verisk Analytics has increased its dividend payment by an average of 8.0% per year over the last three years. Verisk Analytics has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect Verisk Analytics to earn $7.25 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 21.5%.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 1.9 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $280.80 on Monday. The stock has a market cap of $39.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 43.81, a PEG ratio of 3.52 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $291.42. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $271.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $267.04. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The company had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.52 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 17th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 31st. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 31st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $282.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Wednesday, October 2nd. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of Verisk Analytics stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 1.25 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Insiders own 0.40% 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.