Verisk Analytics, Inc. (VRSK) to Issue Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 on March 31st

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the business services provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.80 annualized dividend and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 14th. This is a 15.4% increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39.

Verisk Analytics has increased its dividend by an average of 10.4% per year over the last three years. Verisk Analytics has a dividend payout ratio of 22.8% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect Verisk Analytics to earn $7.25 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.80 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 24.8%.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

Shares of VRSK stock opened at $290.53 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $40.75 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.32, a PEG ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $287.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $279.86. 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 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Sell-side analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This trade represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,071,832.96. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047 over the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on VRSK. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, December 12th. Robert W. Baird increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays cut 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. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

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.