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Here's Why You Should Hold VRSK Stock in Your Portfolio Now

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Key Takeaways

  • VRSK subscription revenues rose 8% in Q2'26, accounting for 83% of total revenues and supporting stability.
  • VRSK's XactAI recorded 10X user growth, reaching 7,000 licensees, while underwriting revenues rose y/y 5.6%.
  • VRSK faces a 4.2% transactional revenue dip, rising operating costs and uncertain AI monetization prospects.

Verisk (VRSK - Free Report) stock has declined 20.3% over the past year compared with the industry's 7% dip. The Zacks S&P 500 Composite has rallied 20.2% over the same period.

1-Year Share Price Performance

Zacks Investment Research                                                                  Image Source: Zacks Investment Research

The Zacks Consensus Estimate for VRSK’s 2026 revenues is $3.2 billion, suggesting 5% year-over-year growth. For 2027, the metric is expected to gain 6.5% to $3.4 billion.

The consensus mark for 2026 earnings per share is pinned at $7.71, suggesting a 7.7% year-over-year jump. The bottom line is expected to increase 13.1% to $8.72 in 2027.

Factors That Augur Well for VRSK’s Success

Recurring Subscription Aids Growth Stability: VRSK’s subscription-backed business model improves revenue visibility and supports persistent growth. The company ended the second quarter of 2026 with subscription revenues rising 8% year over year on an organic constant currency (OCC) basis, subsequent to 9.3% growth in the year-ago quarter.

Verisk’s subscription revenues constituted 83% of the top line, lowering exposure to transactional volatility. The company’s growth across underwriting, catastrophe risk solutions and antifraud analytics is fueled by strong renewals, strong price realization and customer relationship enhancement. Recurring revenue growth trajectory should be sustained on the back of persistent product enhancement and client wins.

AI-Driven Growth Opportunities: Verisk’s AI investments strengthen its competitive position, creating monetization opportunities. XactAI, VRSK’s AI-driven claims automation solution, registered approximately 10X user growth, reaching nearly 7,000 licensees. Premium Audit AI gained momentum, supporting stronger subscription renewals through improved functionality.

VRSK’s Anthropic collaboration introduced AI-fuelled connectors for underwriting and claims, with a top-10 insurer adopting the technology. Customer engagement should improve as AI integration expands across insurance workflows, strengthening pricing power and creating opportunities for more subscriptions and licensing revenues.

Insurance Analytics’ Contribution to Organic Growth: Verisk ended the second quarter of 2026 with underwriting and claims revenues rising 5.6% and 6.1% year over year, respectively, on an OCC basis. The company onboarded eight Core Lines contributors and 10 excess and surplus data contributors during the first half of 2026. An expanding proprietary dataset and improved analytical skill set improve product differentiation, supporting customer wins and creating opportunities from cross-selling and top-line growth in the long run.

Risks Faced by Verisk

Sluggish Insurance Market: In the second quarter of 2026, Verisk’s transactional revenues declined 4.2% on an OCC basis, indicating lower property-related activity, fewer weather events and international travel disruptions. Transactional revenues contributed 17% of the top line during the aforementioned quarter. Management anticipates a soft commercial property market and weather-related transactional weakness to persist through the second half of 2026, disrupting revenue growth.

Rising Operating Costs & Interest Expenses: The company’s selling, general and administrative expenses gained 20.8% year over year during the second quarter of 2026, driven by acquisition, disposition and AccuLynx-related costs, alongside higher consulting and employee-related expenses. Net interest expenses climbed to $53 million from the year-ago quarter’s $36 million, while the effective tax rate increased to 24.6% from 22.7%. It subsequently hurt net income, which declined 10% year over year.

Uncertain AI Monetization: Verisk shoulders execution and monetization risks as insurers rapidly adopt AI and develop proprietary analytical capabilities. Despite rising demand for AI-driven solutions, management identifies incremental AI revenue contribution as tough to quantify. Customer adoption cycles drag out and changing monetization models could curb revenue visibility.

VRSK’s Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

The company currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Better-ranked stocks in the broader Zacks Business Services sector include Figure Technology Solutions (FIGR - Free Report) and Ralliant Corporation (RAL - Free Report) . These two companies presently flaunt a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.

Figure Technology Solutions has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 56.6%. FIGR delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 28.2%, on average.

Ralliant has a long-term earnings growth expectation of 9.4%. RAL delivered a trailing four-quarter earnings surprise of 7.1%, on average.

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