Verisk reported second-quarter 2026 financial results and separately announced the acquisition of McKenzie Intelligence Services (MIS), a geospatial intelligence and event response company specializing in real-time catastrophe and conflict event analysis, expanding the data analytics provider's catastrophe and political violence risk capabilities.
Revenue for the quarter reached US$806 million, up 4.3% year over year and 5.8% on an organic constant currency (OCC) basis. Adjusted EBITDA rose to US$464 million, up 4.2% on a reported basis and 7.4% on an OCC basis, with margins holding at 57.5%. Diluted adjusted earnings per share increased 5.3% to US$1.98, while diluted GAAP EPS fell 3.3% to US$1.75.
Net income declined 9.8% to US$229 million, which the company attributed to a higher effective tax rate, increased net interest expense, and legal fees tied to ongoing litigation, including telematics-related class actions, data privacy claims under New Jersey's Daniel's Law, trade secrets claims from JPMorgan Chase, and a merger dispute involving AccuLynx.
Within the insurance segment, underwriting revenue grew 5.6% on an OCC basis to US$569 million, while claims revenue rose 6.1% to US$237 million, supported by anti-fraud analytics and property and restoration solutions. Management also flagged softening conditions in property and commercial property lines, with transactional revenue down 17% on an OCC basis.
Operating cash flow climbed 49.7% to US$366 million, and free cash flow increased 57.9% to US$298 million. Verisk paid a US$0.50 per share dividend and executed a US$200 million accelerated share repurchase during the quarter, and reaffirmed full-year 2026 guidance, including revenue of US$3.19 billion to US$3.24 billion and diluted adjusted EPS of US$7.45 to US$7.75.
Lee Shavel, president and CEO of Verisk, said the results reflect the durability of the company's economic model and the operational discipline with which the business is being managed, pointing to continued investment in proprietary datasets and AI technologies as key to sustaining long-term value for clients and shareholders.
"In the second quarter 2026, we grew revenue 5.8% on an OCC basis with 8.0% underlying subscription growth and delivered 7.4% OCC adjusted EBITDA growth and healthy margins," CFO Elizabeth Mann said. She added that strong cash flow generation allows the company to invest at scale in advanced technologies while returning capital to shareholders, and expressed confidence that growth would return to levels consistent with the company's Investor Day targets in the second half of the year.
Alongside its earnings, Verisk announced it has acquired MIS, which provides rapid post-event damage assessment and what the company describes as military-grade intelligence for insurers, reinsurers, brokers and loss adjusters. MIS aggregates multi-source geospatial data to support property-level damage assessments, portfolio exposure estimates, claims triage and litigation support, and the deal extends Verisk's leadership in Strikes, Riots and Civil Commotion (SRCC) and political violence risk analytics with real-time, incident-level intelligence that activates as events unfold.
Rob Newbold, president of Verisk Catastrophe and Risk Solutions, said combining MIS's real-time intelligence with Verisk's catastrophe models, risk analytics and claims solutions would give clients a more complete view of unfolding events to help them prioritize response and support policyholders. Forbes McKenzie, founder of MIS, said the deal was a natural next step given the companies' prior collaboration and the growing disruptiveness of catastrophes worldwide.
MIS will join Verisk's Catastrophe and Risk Solutions unit, part of AIR Worldwide Corporation, sitting alongside Verisk Maplecroft's external risk monitoring and recent platform investments including Verisk Synergy Studio and the 2025 acquisition of Verisk Model Exchange. Verisk said the transaction is not expected to have a material impact on its financial results.
The acquisition lands as SRCC and political violence risk shifts from a low-frequency tail exposure to a more persistent underwriting concern. Howden Re estimated insured SRCC losses rose from negligible levels in 2013 to more than US$8 billion between 2020 and 2024, and expects a clear increase in US losses this year.
Meanwhile, Verisk Maplecroft's civil unrest index has found commercial property increasingly targeted during protests across 53 countries over the past year, and Verisk's Torbjorn Soltvedt has said the SRCC risk landscape has fundamentally changed as insurers move away from bundling the coverage at no extra cost. Lloyd's of London assigned SRCC its own distinct risk code in 2024, and Verisk released its first dedicated SRCC catastrophe model in 2025.
Together, the results and acquisition illustrate a company balancing steady core subscription growth and sustained data-asset investment against rising legal costs and a softening property market.
The MIS deal, layered onto Verisk's existing catastrophe modelling and Maplecroft's political risk analytics, positions the company to pair predictive models with live, on-the-ground intelligence just as insurers tighten SRCC terms and corporate buyers show rising demand for dedicated political violence coverage, reinforcing Verisk's role as core data infrastructure for underwriting and claims decisions across an increasingly volatile risk landscape.
