William Blair Brokers Reduce Earnings Estimates for VRSK

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) – Equities researchers at William Blair cut their Q1 2025 earnings per share (EPS) estimates for shares of Verisk Analytics in a report released on Thursday, February 27th. William Blair analyst A. Nicholas now anticipates that the business services provider will post earnings of $1.66 per share for the quarter, down from their previous 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.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $325.00 to $321.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 27th. Barclays downgraded Verisk Analytics from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $310.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, January 10th. BMO Capital Markets increased their target price on Verisk Analytics from $280.00 to $297.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 27th. Royal Bank of Canada reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics in a research note on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $298.00 to $320.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, February 27th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $299.33.

Verisk Analytics Price Performance

NASDAQ:VRSK opened at $301.33 on Monday. Verisk Analytics has a 12-month low of $217.34 and a 12-month high of $302.25. The firm has a market cap of $42.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 47.01, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.89. The company’s 50-day moving average is $284.79 and its two-hundred day moving average is $278.67. 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, 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. The company had revenue of $735.60 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $733.55 million. Verisk Analytics had a return on equity of 274.13% and a net margin of 32.65%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Verisk Analytics

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Verisk Analytics by 468.8% during the fourth quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 91 shares of the business services provider’s stock worth $25,000 after acquiring an additional 75 shares during the last quarter. Sugarloaf Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Roxbury Financial LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Centricity Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, SBI Securities Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in shares of Verisk Analytics during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $30,000. 90.00% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other Verisk Analytics news, Director Bruce Edward Hansen sold 1,179 shares of the 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 owns 13,786 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,760,958.66. This trade represents a 7.88 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kathy Card Beckles sold 2,111 shares of Verisk Analytics 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 sale, the insider now owns 9,066 shares in the company, valued at $2,557,155.96. This represents a 18.89 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 4,469 shares of company stock valued at $1,264,818. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Verisk Analytics Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 31st. Investors of record on Friday, March 14th will be given a dividend of $0.45 per share. This represents a $1.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.60%. 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. Verisk Analytics’s dividend payout ratio is 26.87%.

Verisk Analytics announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase program on Wednesday, February 26th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the business services provider to buy up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.