Verisk Analytics, Inc. (NASDAQ:VRSK) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Elizabeth Mann : Yes, it’s a great question. We’re not giving a specific number on interest guidance, but I can give you some dimensionality to it. I think if you look at our fourth quarter interest expense, that was obviously higher than it was kind of on a run rate basis for the full year. I think for 2023, we would assume that the interest expense is slightly less than it was in the fourth quarter annualized but higher than it was for kind of the full year of ’22 or between those two factors.

Operator: Our final question comes from Faiza Alwy with Deutsche Bank.

Faiza Alwy : And I just want to say congratulations on executing all the changes in 2022, and thank you from me also on providing guidance. Today, I wanted to just go back on margins and specifically about the 2024 goals. The range is still pretty wide. And wanted to get a sense of what are some of the factors that would take you to the low end of the range versus the high end of the range?

Elizabeth Mann : Yes. Thanks, Faiza, for the question. Really, we’re here today to talk about the quarter and the 2023 view. So sort of longer-term discussions, we’ll talk about at Investor Day.

Lee Shavel : Yes. And Faiza, I would just say, look, we clearly an objective of delivering on that, and we want to demonstrate our ability to improve that margin. Longer term, I think what we’ll talk about are the trade-offs between investment and margin and the value that the investment can deliver in terms of growth and returns. I think that’s not a new dynamic. That’s something that we have always worked to try to find a balance to demonstrate margin strength, but also not at the cost of delivering where we think value is created most significantly, which is through growth and returns. But we are fully committed to delivering on the guidance that we set initially of that 53% to 56% range, and we’re working to deliver a strong result as we possibly can.

Operator: There are no further questions at this time, which concludes today’s conference. Thank you for attending today’s presentation. You may now disconnect.