Verisk’s Annual Profit Forecast Falls Short Amid Spending Uncertainty
The company’s products primarily cater to U.S. property and casualty (P&C) insurers across personal and commercial lines of business, which account for a substantial portion of its revenue.
P&C insurers have been grappling with elevated catastrophe losses for over a year, hurting profits, though the impact has largely been offset by higher investment returns on fixed-income portfolios.
But the environment has prompted some caution among data and analytics firms of P&C insurers, potentially pulling back on spending amid inflation headwinds.
Verisk forecast annual adjusted profit in the range of $6.30 to $6.60 per share, compared with analysts’ average estimate of $6.61 per share, according to LSEG data.
Shares of the company fell 1.2% in premarket trading after it also missed fourth-quarter profit estimates.
New Jersey-based Verisk posted adjusted earnings of $1.40 per share for the three months ended Dec. 31, compared with analysts’ expectations of $1.44 per share.
Its underwriting revenue, which comes from offering property-specific underwriting and rating information as well as catastrophe modeling, increased 7.8% to $479 million for the quarter.
Claims revenue, which comes from providing property estimating solutions, fraud-detection tools and casualty solutions, rose 6.6% to $198.2 million.
Verisk’s consolidated revenue rose 7.4% to $677.2 million in the quarter.
(Reporting by Arasu Kannagi Basil in Bengaluru; Editing by Shilpi Majumdar)