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

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 13th,Zacks Dividends reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 13th will be given a dividend of 0.39 per share by the business services provider on Tuesday, December 31st. This represents a $1.56 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.54%. 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% indicating that 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 Stock Up 0.7 %

Verisk Analytics stock traded up $2.12 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $290.04. 506,793 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 790,895. The company has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.13, a PEG ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.86. The business’s 50 day moving average is $270.56 and its 200 day moving average is $265.74. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $217.34 and a 52 week high of $291.42. 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 (NASDAQ:VRSK) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The business had revenue of $725.30 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. Analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total value of $54,266.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at $4,289,184.64. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms recently commented on VRSK. BMO Capital Markets increased their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 1st. Barclays raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an “in-line” rating and set a $279.00 target price on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Wednesday, October 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Verisk Analytics from $243.00 to $260.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 31st. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $285.80.

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.