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

Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 13th,Zacks Dividends reports. Shareholders 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 13th.

Verisk Analytics has raised its dividend by an average of 8.0% annually over the last three years. Verisk Analytics has a payout ratio of 21.4% meaning 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 $1.56 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 21.5%.

Verisk Analytics Stock Performance

VRSK stock traded down $0.66 during trading on Thursday, hitting $289.38. The company had a trading volume of 50,297 shares, compared to its average volume of 787,544. Verisk Analytics has a 1-year low of $217.34 and a 1-year high of $291.42. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $270.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $265.91. The company has a quick ratio of 0.82, a current ratio of 0.82 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 8.36. The firm has a market cap of $40.86 billion, a PE ratio of 45.25, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.86.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. Verisk Analytics had a net margin of 32.65% and a return on equity of 274.13%. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $722.19 million. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.52 EPS. Verisk Analytics’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 earnings per share for the current year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts have commented on the stock. Royal Bank of Canada boosted their target price on shares of Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, September 13th. BMO Capital Markets raised their price target on Verisk Analytics from $263.00 to $276.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 1st. Wells Fargo & Company raised Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Finally, Robert W. Baird increased their price objective on shares of Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Six analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Insider Transactions at Verisk Analytics

In other Verisk Analytics news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $271.33, for a total transaction of $54,266.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 15,808 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,289,184.64. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.