Verisk Analytics, Inc.

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Verisk second quarter 2025 earnings results conference call. This call is being recorded. Currently, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After today's prepared remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session where we will limit participants to one question so that we can allow time for everyone to ask a question. We will have further instructions for you at that time. For opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Verisk Head of Investor Relations, Ms. Stacey Broadbar. Ms. Broadbar, please go ahead.

Thank you, Operator, and good day, everyone. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our second quarter 2025 financial results. On the call today are Lee Shavel, Verisk's President and Chief Executive Officer, and Elizabeth Mance, Chief Financial Officer. The earnings release referenced on this call, as well as our traditional quarterly earnings presentation and the associated 10Q, can be found in the investor section of our website, Verisk.com. The earnings release has also been attached to an 8K that we have furnished to the SEC. A replay of this call will be available for 30 days on our website and by dial-in. As set forth in more detail in today's earnings release, I will remind everyone that today's call may include forward-looking statements about Verisk's future performance, including those related to our financial guidance and our recently announced pending acquisition of AccuLinks. Actual performance could differ materially from what is suggested by our comments today. Information about the factors that could affect future performance is contained in our recent SEC filing. Reconciliation of reported and historic non-GAAP financial measures discussed on this call is provided in our 8K and today's earnings presentation posted on the investor section of our website, Verisk.com. However, we are not able to provide a reconciliation of projected adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin to the most directly comparable expected GAAP result because of the unreasonable effort and high unpredictability of estimating certain items that are excluded from projected non-GAAP adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin, including, for example, tax consequences, acquisition-related costs, Gains and losses from dispositions and other non-recurring expenses, the effects of which may be significant. And now, I'd like to turn the call over to Lee Shavel.

Thank you, Stacey. Good day, everyone, and welcome to today's call. I'm pleased to share that our operating momentum continued in the second quarter as we delivered another strong quarter, which was generally in line with our expectations. Organic constant currency revenue growth of 7.9% was broad-based across most of our businesses. Our focus on cost discipline delivered healthy margin expansion, resulting in organic constant currency adjusted EBITDA growth of 9.7%. Elizabeth will provide much more detail in her financial review, but these results demonstrate the compounding power of our subscription-based business model, driven by the value we create for our clients. I'm confident that this year is on track to be another solid year for Verisk, and we are raising our revenue and adjusted EBITDA outlook for the full year 2025 to reflect the strong first half and the impact of M&A. Almost three years ago, we unveiled the new Verisk, an insurance-focused, predictable growth company. We implemented structural and cultural changes to become more integrated, and we focused on elevating the strategic dialogue with our clients. The net result has been strong financial and operational growth. We also evolved our business from industry utility to data analytics specialist to integrated technology network, serving the global insurance industry by focusing on innovation and advanced technologies. And we maintained our capital allocation discipline, investing behind our highest return on capital opportunities while returning excess capital to shareholders. This morning, we announced that we have signed a definitive agreement to acquire AccuLynx for $2.35 billion. AccuLynx is the leading SaaS platform providing end-to-end business management workflow for the residential restoration and repair industry with expertise in roofing. AccuLynx is a natural fit and extension of the network capabilities we provide to insurance carriers and contractors through our property estimating solutions business. AccuLink's integrated service software platform sits at the center of the roofing contractor's workflow, addressing each critical stage, including lead generation, sales and customer relationship management, virtual measurements, materials ordering, labor sourcing, payment processing, and job management. Most of the company's 5,000-plus customers perform insurance-driven repairs and restoration and roofs are one of the largest and most expensive home components, making up more than 25% of all residential claim value. AccuLynx is a very strong business with a compelling financial profile marked by revenue growth and EBITDA margins that are accretive to Verisk overall and a high mix of recurring revenues. But more importantly, AccuLynx is highly additive to our property estimating solutions business due to a high degree of customer overlap and complementary functionality. We see strong incremental value creation from combining AccuLynx with various property estimating solutions, which will in turn improve, extend, and strengthen our network, enhancing the value of the ecosystem for all participants. Specifically, More seamless integration will remove manual work and improve information flow between carriers and contractors, delivering cost and time savings for both constituencies, while property owners can benefit from quicker repairs due to workflow efficiency and cost savings driven by more accurate pricing data. On the data front, Acculink's differentiated and rich datasets focused on roofing materials and labor will improve the analytics we provide to insurers and contractors. Through our elevated strategic dialogue, we hear frequent requests for enhancements to our roofing materials information and benchmarking reports. We see synergistic cross-sell and up-sell opportunities as we can advance the adoption of the AccuLynx platform and its many modules to existing Veris customers. Additionally, We were excited about the opportunity for expanded data monetization of existing Veris products across the AccuLynx client base. We previously announced the strategic acquisition of AssuranceBay, a leading provider of producer licensing, onboarding, and compliance solutions for the life and annuity industry. AssuranceBay will become part of Veris Life Solutions and extends our presence into the independent agent and broader distribution channel. The combination of AssuranceBay and Verisk's FAST business will help to streamline and improve the process of insurance distribution and will provide the life and annuity ecosystem with solutions that enhance workflows between carriers, general agencies, insurance agents, and consumers. The initial reaction to the announcement has been very positive. Clients, prospects, and industry analysts have commented that they see the value in an integrated solution as voiced by one of them that this was, quote, a perfect fit for the suite. This feedback further affirms our ongoing commitment to delivering innovative, integrated solutions that address the evolving needs of the life and annuity sector. Together, the acquisitions of AccuLinks Insurance Bay are a meaningful demonstration of our capital allocation discipline, which includes our fundamental value creating M&A philosophy. This approach is focused on three pillars. Mainly one, acquiring solid operating businesses consistent with our insurance-focused strategy with sustainable growth and operating leverage. Two, identifying clear opportunities to improve and enhance the value of the combined entities. And three, to acquire businesses at a price that generates an attractive return on capital. Over the past three years, we have demonstrated patience, selectivity, and price discipline, and we are excited to welcome the AccuLynx Insurance Bay teams to Verisk. We are energized about working together to enhance the network effect of these businesses and maximize value for the property claims and life insurance ecosystems. Across Verisk, we have been focused on driving innovation and leaning in on our use of generative AI, embedding new features in some of our core products to deliver greater insights and efficiencies for our clients. In particular, as part of our Coraline's Reimagine initiative, we launched Premium Audit Advisory Service AI, a first-to-market AI chatbot. This invention enables insurers to research classifications and rules to ensure risks are accurately classified at underwriting with information retrieval over 95% faster than our legacy solutions. Client adoption of the solution has been strong, and we are experiencing increases in time spent by clients as they are finding value in the tool. Additionally, within Mozart, our forms management platform, the Mozart Compare with AI enables our customers to compare across ISO forms to quickly identify changes we have made to coverage language to reflect up-to-date market and compliance requirements. This solution is saving our customers time and eliminating complexity in managing forms changes. And finally, we are in the early stages of a commercial introduction of Underwriting Assistant, our AI-powered solution that produces transformative underwriting results with greater efficiency and data accuracy, enabling users to maximize their productivity and effectiveness. One of the key features of Underwriting Assistant is its ability to automate the creation of structured commercial property submissions, significantly reducing the time to decision, transforming what used to take days or weeks into just minutes. This not only speeds up the process, but also replaces lower value data capture activities, allowing underwriters who are leveraging the tool to focus on more strategic tasks. Our solution also enhances data accuracy through data augmentation by leveraging our extensive commercial property data sets to ensure that underwriters have the most reliable and complete data, contributing to more profitable underwriting decisions. And finally, our interactive chatbot provides real-time expert advice to underwriters and agents, which leverages our deep domain expertise and proprietary data. By providing timely prompts and insights, We help ensure that underwriting decisions are both more informed and profitable. We are excited about this new groundbreaking innovation and the opportunity to help our insurance partners include the most advanced technologies in their core processes. Before we close, I want to announce that Maroun Murad is stepping down from his role at Verisk to assume an executive position at another public company. We wish Maroun well and thank him for his decade of service to Verisk. With Maroun's departure, Elizabeth Mann will take on the added responsibility of interim president claim solutions. We are confident in the bench strength we have in place within claims and have commenced a search for a permanent replacement. Now let me turn the call over to Elizabeth for the financial review.