Verisk Analytics, Inc. (VRSK) To Go Ex-Dividend on March 14th

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, February 19th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be paid a dividend of 0.45 per share by the business services provider on Monday, March 31st. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.62%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend 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 payout ratio of 22.8% indicating that 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 Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $290.53 on Wednesday. Verisk Analytics has a fifty-two week low of $217.34 and a fifty-two week high of $306.10. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $287.13 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $279.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. The firm has a market cap of $40.75 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 26th. The business services provider reported $1.61 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.01. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. The business had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $733.55 million. On average, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

VRSK has been the subject of several research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $283.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, December 12th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. 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. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, February 26th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the business services provider to reacquire up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $295.36, for a total value of $348,229.44. Following the transaction, the director now owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,071,832.96. This represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 5,648 shares of company stock worth $1,613,047 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company 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.