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

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 paid 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% per year over the last three years. Verisk Analytics has a dividend payout ratio of 21.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. 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 Trading Up 0.7 %

Shares of VRSK stock traded up $2.12 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $290.04. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 506,793 shares, compared to its average volume of 790,895. The stock has a market capitalization of $40.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.13, a P/E/G ratio of 3.61 and a beta of 0.86. Verisk Analytics has a one year low of $217.34 and a one year high of $291.42. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $270.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $265.74. 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 issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, October 30th. The business services provider reported $1.67 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.60 by $0.07. The firm had revenue of $725.30 million for 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.0% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.52 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that Verisk Analytics will post 6.63 EPS for the current year.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. Robert W. Baird lifted their price objective on Verisk Analytics from $285.00 to $301.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 31st. Royal Bank of Canada lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $268.00 to $300.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 17th. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded Verisk Analytics to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 13th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target 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. Finally, Barclays lifted their price target on Verisk Analytics from $275.00 to $310.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, September 13th. Six research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Verisk Analytics has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $285.80.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CFO Elizabeth Mann sold 200 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on 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. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.