Mark V. Anquillare - Verisk Analytics, Inc.
Management
Thank you, Scott. Across our businesses, we serve the property and casualty insurance industry, we have several key themes, including vertical big data, industry automation and digital engagement. While the headline growth across our insurance businesses is a bit below trend during the quarter, both the underlying performance and outlook for the rest of the year and beyond is encouraging. First, growth in the quarter was reduced by last year's true up revenue, which did not recur in 2017. Second and most important, the pricing environment and the competitive landscape remain consistent with the past. Third, as we look at the core solutions in each of our businesses, they're growing well. For example, in our catastrophe modeling business, the dynamics in the reinsurance industry continue to be challenging. That has affected the cap on and consulting businesses. However, as we look at the majority of what we do there, extreme event modeling, we are growing in the high single digits as we continue to take market share. Big data message, integrated into our platform, are very compelling to the industry. Looking at our claims businesses, our two largest solutions related to repair cost estimate continue to grow in the mid to high single-digits. This is a good example of continuing industry automation. And of course, fraud is evergreen, helping our anti-fraud related solutions continue to grow nicely. As a final example, in our personal lines underwriting business, where our solutions are well-established, but still newer to the market than some of our competitors, we're making good progress in innovating and gaining market share. We're applying big data methods, which we expect will be a key differentiator even as we help our customers digitally engage more effectively with their customers. Finally, in our important heritage ISO business, our normal course price increases went into effect in January and we're pleased with the uptake of our newer solutions. While many of you may think of the ISO solutions business as a steady, stable grower, which it is, we're really excited with the addition of new people who are helping us push forward with innovative solutions. These are allowing us to address parts of the end market where we haven't historically served, but where we see a lot of opportunity to help our customers solve tough problems they face. As we look at some of the newer things we're doing, including expanding into international markets and with the recent acquisition, there's a lot which is very encouraging. With that, let me turn it over to Eva to cover our financial results in more detail.