Zacks Research Issues Negative Forecast for VRSK Earnings

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) – Zacks Research cut their Q1 2025 EPS estimates for Verisk Analytics in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, March 19th. Zacks Research analyst R. Department now expects that the business services provider will post earnings of $1.67 per share for the quarter, down from their previous forecast of $1.72. The consensus estimate for Verisk Analytics’ current full-year earnings is $6.63 per share. Zacks Research also issued estimates for Verisk Analytics’ Q2 2025 earnings at $1.78 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.76 EPS, Q4 2025 earnings at $1.76 EPS, FY2025 earnings at $6.97 EPS, Q2 2026 earnings at $1.93 EPS, Q3 2026 earnings at $1.97 EPS, Q4 2026 earnings at $1.99 EPS, FY2026 earnings at $7.77 EPS and FY2027 earnings at $8.51 EPS.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Barclays lowered shares of Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. Robert W. Baird upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a report on Tuesday, January 7th. BMO Capital Markets upped their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective 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 research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Stock Down 0.9 %

Verisk Analytics stock opened at $285.16 on Friday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $289.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $280.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 44.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. 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 has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.60 by $0.01. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% in the 4th quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 75 shares during the period. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at about $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total transaction of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock valued at $1,613,047. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a $0.45 dividend. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.63%. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is presently 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.