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

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 2nd, Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Saturday, June 15th will be paid a dividend of 0.39 per share by the business services provider on Friday, June 28th. This represents a $1.56 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.67%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, June 14th.

Verisk Analytics has raised its dividend by an average of 8.0% per year over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 5 years. Verisk Analytics has a payout ratio of 21.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect Verisk Analytics to earn $7.21 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 21.6%.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ VRSK traded up $0.95 on Thursday, reaching $233.76. 1,544,745 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 903,904. Verisk Analytics has a 12 month low of $198.40 and a 12 month high of $251.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.85, a current ratio of 1.05 and a quick ratio of 1.05. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $231.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $236.03. The stock has a market cap of $33.37 billion, a PE ratio of 55.52, a P/E/G ratio of 2.72 and a beta of 0.79.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 1st. The business services provider reported $1.63 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.52 by $0.11. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 22.92% and a return on equity of 305.15%. The business had revenue of $704.00 million for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $699.07 million. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.29 earnings per share. The business's quarterly revenue was up 8.0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other news, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total transaction of $346,433.22. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $11,528,824.95. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 227 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.61, for a total transaction of $53,937.47. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 7,796 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,852,407.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Nicholas Daffan sold 1,554 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Friday, April 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $222.93, for a total value of $346,433.22. Following the sale, the insider now owns 51,715 shares of the company's stock, valued at $11,528,824.95. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 11,300 shares of company stock valued at $2,647,952. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

VRSK has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Evercore ISI reaffirmed an "in-line" rating and issued a $250.00 price target on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research report on Tuesday, March 26th. Bank of America downgraded Verisk Analytics from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and cut their price target for the company from $270.00 to $260.00 in a research note on Monday, January 8th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets boosted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $238.00 to $241.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a research note on Thursday. Nine investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $252.21.

Verisk Analytics announced that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, February 21st that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company's leadership 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.