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 encouraging. The company is grappling with elevated expenses.

VRSK’s revenues are anticipated to increase 4.3% and 6.7% year over year in 2026 and 2027, respectively. Earnings are estimated to rise 6.4% in 2026 and 13% in 2027. The company has an estimated long-term (three to five years) earnings per share growth rate of 10.1%.

Verisk Analytics, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise

Verisk Analytics, Inc. price-eps-surprise | Verisk Analytics, Inc. Quote

Factors That Augur Well for VRSK’s Success

Verisk is strengthening climate-risk intelligence through its collaboration with S&P Global Energy, combining catastrophe modeling with advanced climate analytics. By integrating its models into platforms such as Touchstone and Climanomics, Verisk helps insurers, banks and asset managers better quantify insured and uninsured losses from climate events. The partnership enables institutions to improve portfolio stress testing, meet growing regulatory expectations and make more informed risk and capital allocation decisions.

VRSK enhances its competitive edge by integrating Digital Commerce Detector and Digital Asset Finder into its ClaimSearch platform, enabling insurers to identify fraud earlier, recover stolen assets quickly and streamline investigations. By automating workflows and monitoring digital marketplaces in real time, the company helps insurers lower costs, reduce manual effort and improve loss ratios.

This launch reinforces the company’s leadership in anti-fraud solutions while expanding its market presence by bringing proven European capabilities to the United States. As a result, it further solidifies the company’s position as a trusted partner in tackling increasingly complex insurance fraud.

Improved operating leverage supported strong fourth-quarter 2025 performance at VRSK, with revenues rising 5.9% to $779 million and adjusted EBITDA increasing 9.8% to $437 million. The stronger margin expansion indicates effective cost management and scalable operations, highlighting the company’s ability to convert steady revenue growth into higher profitability.

VRSK continues to reward shareholders through consistent dividends and increased share repurchases. The company has paid more than $188 million in annual dividends since 2021 and boosted buybacks from $475 million in 2021 to $2.8 billion in 2023. In the fourth quarter of 2025, Verisk paid a cash dividend of $0.45 per share and increased its quarterly dividend by 11% to $0.50, payable on March 31, 2026. The company expanded its share repurchase authorization to $2.5 billion, signaling strong confidence in its financial strength and long-term growth prospects.

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 11% in the fourth 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.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to consider

VRSK currently carries a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Some better-ranked stocks for investors’ consideration are Dave Inc. DAVE and Maximus MMS.

Dave currently carries a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy). The company has an expected earnings growth rate of 6.8% and 24.4% for 2026 and 2027, respectively.

DAVE has an encouraging earnings surprise history as it has surpassed the Zacks Consensus Estimate in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average beat of 54.2%.

Maximus carries a Zacks Rank of 2. MMS has an expected earnings growth rate of 15% and 5.04% for fiscal 2026 and 2027, respectively.

The company has an encouraging earnings surprise history as it has topped the Zacks Consensus Estimate in three of the trailing four quarters, missing in the remaining one, delivering an average earnings surprise of 25.5%.

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

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