William Blair Predicts Lower Earnings for Verisk Analytics

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) – Equities researchers at William Blair lowered their Q1 2025 earnings estimates for shares of Verisk Analytics in a report issued on Thursday, February 27th. William Blair analyst A. Nicholas now forecasts that the business services provider will earn $1.66 per share for the quarter, down from their prior forecast of $1.71. The consensus estimate for Verisk Analytics’ current full-year earnings is $6.63 per share. William Blair also issued estimates for Verisk Analytics’ Q2 2025 earnings at $1.77 EPS, Q3 2025 earnings at $1.77 EPS and FY2025 earnings at $6.95 EPS.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last announced 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 company had revenue of $735.60 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%.

VRSK has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays cut 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 note on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Robert W. Baird increased their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased 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 note on Thursday, February 27th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Trading Down 0.6 %

NASDAQ VRSK opened at $299.54 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36, a current ratio of 0.82 and a quick ratio of 0.82. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $285.21 and its 200 day moving average price is $278.90. The company has a market capitalization of $42.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 46.73, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $217.34 and a 12 month high of $306.10.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 14th will be issued a dividend of $0.45 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 14th. This is an increase from Verisk Analytics’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.39. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.60%. Verisk Analytics’s payout ratio is 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 buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the business services provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In related news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $272.81, for a total value of $321,642.99. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 13,786 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,760,958.66. The trade was a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $282.06, for a total transaction of $595,428.66. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,557,155.96. The trade was a 18.89 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 4,469 shares of company stock worth $1,264,818 over the last ninety days. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Alliancebernstein L.P. grew its holdings in Verisk Analytics by 8.1% in the fourth quarter. Alliancebernstein L.P. now owns 5,210,080 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,435,012,000 after purchasing an additional 392,270 shares during the period. FMR LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 1.6% during the fourth quarter. FMR LLC now owns 4,691,016 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,292,047,000 after buying an additional 72,045 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 0.5% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 3,811,563 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $1,051,300,000 after buying an additional 19,423 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank acquired a new position in Verisk Analytics during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $526,676,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its position in Verisk Analytics by 9.6% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 1,654,826 shares of the business services provider’s stock valued at $455,789,000 after buying an additional 144,599 shares in the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.