Verisk tops third-quarter expectations on resilient demand from insurers

(Reuters) - Verisk Analytics beat market expectations for third-quarter revenue and profit on Wednesday, as more insurance companies used its products to assess risk.

The data analytics company's products cater to insurers across sectors ranging from real estate to manufacturing.

Insurance company Chubb, to whom Verisk provides cost data from the construction and labor industry, beat profit estimates on the back of recovered investment income from various asset classes as markets rally.

A rebound in markets is set to help insurers post higher returns from their investments, improving their capacity for enterprise expenditure.

Verisk's revenue was up about 11% at $677.6 million for the quarter ended Sept. 30. Analysts on average estimated $663.4 million, according to LSEG data.

Underwriting revenue, which comes from providing property-specific underwriting and rating information and data solutions, was up nearly 9% at $475.2 million.

Revenue from the claims segment, which involves loss quantification, repair cost estimations and claims compliance services, rose more than 16% to $202.4 million.

Verisk posted adjusted profit of $1.52 per share for the quarter, compared with analysts' estimate of $1.48 per share.

The New Jersey-based company reiterated its annual revenue forecast range of $2.63 billion to $2.66 billion. Analysts expect $2.67 billion.

Its free cash flow was down 8.7% at $195.8 million.

(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)