Verisk Analytics isn't a company whose name you're likely to see much in headlines. It works behind the scenes, providing data to property and casualty insurance companies to enable them to make decisions. Not sexy perhaps, but critically important. On Wednesday, the Relative Strength Rating for Verisk stock rose to 74. That puts it ahead of about three-fourths of all companies on price performance over the past year.
Research shows that top-performing stocks, the best stocks to buy and watch, often have an RS Rating north of 80 as they begin their largest runs. See if Verisk Analytics can continue to rebound and hit that benchmark.
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Verisk Stock Among Top 18% On Overall Rating
Verisk stock also has an 82 Composite Rating, an amalgam of IBD's other top five ratings, and an 83 Earnings Per Share Rating. Its B Accumulation/Distribution Rating shows that big-money investors like mutual funds are buying more shares than selling. One really outstanding metric is its best-possible A SMR Rating (sales+profit margins+return on equity).
Although it's moved sideways in the uncertain market, Verisk stock has a history of strong growth. It went public in the midst of the Great Recession and was trading at 27.43 shortly after its IPO. On Wednesday, Verisk stock rose nearly 2% to a 190.25 close. Jersey City, N.J.-based Verisk Analytics is trying to complete a consolidation with a 222.21 entry. See if it can clear the breakout price in volume at least 40% above average.
Earnings Growth Rising, Sales Not So Much
Earnings grew 18% last quarter to $1.43 per share, up from 9% growth the prior two quarters. Sales growth is weaker though. Sales of $630.4 million were flat with the same quarter a year earlier. The prior three periods sales edged up 2% all three quarters.
Still, Verisk stock holds the No. 4 rank among its peers in the Commercial Services-Market Research industry group. Gartner and FactSet Research Systems are also among the group's highest-rated stocks.
The exclusive Relative Strength Rating from Investor's Business Daily identifies share price movement with a 1 (worst) to 99 (best) score. The score shows how a stock's price behavior over the trailing 52 weeks compares to all the other stocks in our database.
