April 29 (Reuters) - Verisk Analytics reported better-than-expected results for the first quarter on Wednesday, driven by strong demand for its data analytics products used by insurers to assess policy risks.
Resilient insurance demand, driven by the essential need for coverage despite inflationary pressures from the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran, is boosting demand for data and analytics tools for underwriting, claims processing and fraud detection.
Founded in 1971, Verisk is a New Jersey-based analytics
company that primarily serves the P&C insurers, providing catastrophe modeling and predictive analysis to help them assess risk and optimize policy pricing.
The company's underwriting revenue increased 3.8% in the quarter, while claims revenue climbed 4.3%, primarily due to stronger pricing for its anti-fraud analytics products.
Investor concerns about artificial intelligence are continuing to impact the stock, which has fallen 21% this year.
Analysts, however, see limited risk as the company's proprietary data, contributed by insurers themselves, cannot be easily accessed or replicated.
Verisk's adjusted profit per share was $1.82 in the reported quarter, beating expectations of $1.74, according to data compiled by LSEG.
Its first-quarter revenue rose 3.9% to $783 million from a year earlier, versus estimates of $771.4 million.
(Reporting by Pragyan Kalita and Prakhar Srivastava in Bengaluru; Editing by Vijay Kishore)
