Here's Why You Should Retain Verisk Stock in Your Portfolio Now

Verisk Analytics, Inc. VRSK is bolstered by its tech-savvy initiatives, boosting the company’s prospects. Shareholder-friendly initiatives are also encouraging. However, the company is grappling with elevated expenses.

VRSK’s revenues are anticipated to increase 7.8% and 9.3% year over year in 2025 and 2026, respectively. Earnings are estimated to rise 5% in 2025 and 10% in 2026. The company has an estimated long-term (three to five years) earnings per share growth rate of 10.13%.

Factors That Augur Well for VRSK’s Success

Verisk is strengthening its position as a strategic technology partner by launching the Commercial GenAI Underwriting Assistant, which addresses insurers’ challenges of rising costs, profitability pressures and workforce shortages. The solution automates workflows, delivers AI-driven insights and integrates with existing underwriting systems, enabling insurers to improve efficiency, accuracy and profitability. By aligning with insurers’ demand for intelligent automation — supported by survey results showing strong belief in AI’s transformative role — Verisk captures new growth opportunities, reinforces its competitive edge and demonstrates its commitment to ethical, responsible AI innovation.

The company is boosting its competitive advantage by integrating Digital Commerce Detector and Digital Asset Finder into its ClaimSearch platform, enabling insurers to detect fraud earlier, recover stolen assets faster and streamline investigations. By automating workflows and continuously monitoring digital marketplaces, Verisk helps insurers cut costs, reduce reliance on manual processes and improve loss ratios. This launch strengthens Verisk’s anti-fraud leadership and expands its market reach by scaling proven European solutions to the United States, reinforcing its role as a trusted partner in combating increasingly sophisticated insurance fraud.

VRSK's robust momentum across its core insurance verticals drove strong first-quarter performance, lifting revenues 7.0% to $753 million, or 7.9% on an organic constant-currency basis. Growth in underwriting — up 6.8% (7.2% OCC) from forms, rules, loss cost services, extreme event solutions, and contributions from specialty and life solutions — fueled overall results. Claim revenues rose 7.5% (9.6% OCC) on continued strength in property estimating and anti-fraud solutions.

Moreover, the company has consistently rewarded shareholders through dividends and buybacks, paying more than $188 million in dividends annually since 2021 and significantly increasing repurchases from $475 million in 2021 to $2.8 billion in 2023. In the first quarter of 2025, VRSK returned more than $250 million to shareholders through dividends and repurchases. It also initiated a $200 million Accelerated Share Repurchase program, completed in April, buying 0.7 million shares at an average discounted price of $288.09.

As of March 31, the company had $1.4 billion remaining under its share repurchase authorization. Consistency in shareholder returns boosts share prices as investors seek stability in uncertain markets.

VRSK: Risks on Radar

Verisk faces intensifying pressure from soaring operating expenses, which weigh heavily on profitability and its strategic outlook. Costs rose 42% year over year in 2023, climbed 4.8% in 2024 and surged 6.6% in the first quarter of 2025. Sustained cost growth at this pace could erode margins and limit Verisk’s ability to invest in strategic initiatives, making expense management a key area to watch moving forward.

Share Price Performance

VRSK has had an unimpressive run over the year. Shares of the company have declined 7.6%, outperforming the 22.6% fall of the Business - Information Services industry it belongs to but underperforming the 17.6% growth of the Zacks S&P 500 composite.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to consider

VRSK currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Some better ranked stocks to consider from the broader Zacks Business Services sector are Maximus MMS and AppLovin APP.

Maximus sports a Zacks Rank of #1 (Strong Buy) at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

MMS has an encouraging earnings surprise history, having outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters and missing once. The average beat is 29.3%.

AppLovin also sports a Zacks Rank #1.

APP has an encouraging earnings surprise history, having outpaced the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters. The average beat is 22.36%.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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