Here's Why Verisk (VRSK) Stock is Up 23.3% Year to Date
Shares of Verisk Analytics, Inc. VRSK have gained 23.3% on a year-to-date basis, outperforming the 15.4% rise of the industry it belongs to and 9.4% rise of the Zacks S&P 500 Composite.
Catalysts Behind the Upside
Solid Organic Growth
Verisk continues to witness organic revenue growth driven by increase in new customers for existing solutions, cross-sale of its existing solutions to current customers and the sale of new solutions. In first half of 2018, total revenues grew 8.3% organically and 7.2% on an organic constant-currency basis. This marks an improvement from 2017, wherein total revenues grew 4.5% organically and 5.3% on an organic constant currency basis.
Acquisitions Boosting Service Offerings
The company has been continuously acquiring and investing in companies globally to expand its data and analytics capabilities across industries. From 2015-2017, the company completed 21 acquisitions. In 2018 so far, the company has acquired three companies — Validus-IVC Limited, Business Insight Limited and Marketview Limited. While the buyout of Validus will help improve and automate the claims settlement process, Business Insight will aid in underwriting and rating for the commercial property and homeowners insurance market. Marketview will help Verisk expand the consumer spending analytics across the Australasia and Oceania regions.
Data Analytics Suite
Verisk’s expertise in providing predictive data analytics decision by using advanced technologies to collect and interpret different types of data sets is impressive. The company mainly uses advanced technologies such as latest remote sensing and machine learning technologies along with cloud computing. The majority of the technologies used by Verisk are developed, maintained and supported by almost 20% of its employees. Its efforts to stay technologically updated to meet varying client demands and its technical prowess in analytics and Big Data provide Verisk an edge over its competitors.
Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider
Currently, Verisk carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
Some better-ranked stocks in the broader Business Services sector include Broadridge Financial Solutions BR, Paychex PAYX and Convergys CVG, each carrying a Zacks Rank of 2 (Buy).
The long-term expected earnings per share growth rate for Broadridge Financial Solutions, Paychex and Convergys is 10%, 8.4% and 7.5%, respectively.
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