Verisk Analytics, Inc. Announces Quarterly Dividend of $0.45 (NASDAQ:VRSK)

Key Points

• Verisk Analytics, Inc. has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.45 per share, with a total annualized dividend of $1.80 and a yield of 0.61%, indicating a healthy payout ratio of 22.8% covered by earnings.
• The company reported earnings of $1.88 per share for the quarter, surpassing analysts' estimates, with a revenue increase of 7.8% year-over-year, totaling $772.60 million.
• Recent insider trading saw significant share sales by CFO Elizabeth Mann and Director Samuel G. Liss, with combined sales valued at over $4 million, indicating potential shifts in insider sentiment.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) announced a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, July 30th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Monday, September 15th will be given a dividend of 0.45 per share by the business services provider on Tuesday, September 30th. This represents a c) annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, September 15th.

Verisk Analytics has a dividend 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 Stock Down 2.4%

Shares of VRSK traded down $6.82 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $271.89. The company had a trading volume of 1,544,019 shares, compared to its average volume of 983,088. The company's 50 day moving average price is $305.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $297.25. The stock has a market cap of $37.99 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.89, a PEG ratio of 3.55 and a beta of 0.83. Verisk Analytics has a 52 week low of $259.22 and a 52 week high of $322.92. The company has a quick ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.53 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 10.34.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, July 30th. The business services provider reported $1.88 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.77 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $772.60 million during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $767.91 million. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 30.67% and a return on equity of 460.89%. The company's revenue was up 7.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.74 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CAO David J. Grover sold 5,705 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $307.68, for a total value of $1,755,314.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 12,937 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,980,456.16. This represents a 30.60% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Samuel G. Liss sold 11,656 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $313.06, for a total transaction of $3,649,027.36. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 67,244 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $21,051,406.64. This represents a 14.77% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 28,825 shares of company stock worth $8,947,730 in the last quarter. 0.46% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in VRSK. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $11,964,000. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 1.9% in the 4th quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 3,148 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $867,000 after acquiring an additional 60 shares during the period. Huntington National Bank lifted its stake in shares of Verisk Analytics by 11.4% in the 4th quarter. Huntington National Bank now owns 2,409 shares of the business services provider's stock worth $664,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the period. Bryce Point Capital LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter worth approximately $490,000. Finally, OneAscent Financial Services LLC lifted its stake in Verisk Analytics by 37.7% during the fourth quarter. OneAscent Financial Services LLC now owns 1,487 shares of the business services provider's stock valued at $410,000 after purchasing an additional 407 shares during the last quarter. 90.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.