Verisk's Xactware Introduces Repair Estimation Application

Verisk Analytics, Inc’s (NASDAQ:VRSK) business, Xactware, yesterday introduced EstimateON, a mobile application that provides repair and improvement cost estimates to real estate professionals.

Upon entry of property address and a description of the type of work, the application immediately generates an estimate based on actual labor and material rates associated with similar jobs in the local area.

EstimateON seems to be useful in real estate transactions as an immediate estimate of repair or remodeling cost can be factored into deals in real time. This will speed up negotiations and help close more deals.

The application uses Xactware's comprehensive pricing data that includes localized, independently researched cost information for more than 10,000 material, labor, and equipment items.

We observe that shares of Verisk have rallied 14.9% in the past year, against the 1% decline of the industry it belongs to.

Our Take

We believe that the new offering will boost Verisk’s insurance segment that provides repair cost estimating solutions. Performance in the segment was particularly strong in the last reported quarter with revenues of $427.7 million, up 8% year over year on a reported basis and 5.5% at organic constant currency (cc).

In the segment, claims revenues of $142.6 million rose 6.3% on a reported basis and 4% at organic cc.

Zacks Rank & Stocks to Consider

Currently, Verisk carries a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

A few better-ranked stocks in the broader Business Services sector are Republic Services (NYSE:RSG) , Waste Connections (NYSE:WCN) and Navigant Consulting (NYSE:NCI) , each carrying a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

Long-term expected EPS (three to five years) growth rate for Republic Services, Waste Connections and Navigant is 10.7%, 11.7% and 13.5%, respectively.

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