Wood Mackenzie is the global leader in data, analysis and consulting across the energy, chemicals, metals, mining, power and renewables sectors. Founded in 1973, our success has always been underpinned by the simple principle of providing trusted research and advice that makes a difference to our customers. Today we have over 2,000 customers ranging from the largest global energy companies and financial institutions to governments as well as smaller market specialists. Our teams are located around the world. This enables us to stay closely connected with customers and the markets and sectors we cover.

In this piece we will take a look at the 11 best machine learning stocks to buy. If you want to skip our industry introduction and jump ahead to the top five stocks in this list, then head on over to 5 Best Machine Learning Stocks to Buy. Machine learning refers to a set of technologies that enable researchers and others to use large or small datasets to their advantage by making predictions. It often requires breaking the data set into pieces, and depending on the size of the data set, often requires large amounts of computing power too. The basics of machine learning involve two kinds, supervised and unsupervised.

Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) and Globant (NYSE:GLOB) are both business services companies, but which is the superior investment? We will contrast the two companies based on the strength of their profitability, dividends, institutional ownership, earnings, analyst recommendations, risk and valuation. This table compares Verisk Analytics and Globant's revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Verisk Analytics has higher revenue and earnings than Globant. Verisk Analytics is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Globant, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.

Globant (NYSE:GLOB) and Verisk Analytics (NASDAQ:VRSK) are both computer and technology companies, but which is the superior investment? We will compare the two businesses based on the strength of their earnings, risk, dividends, analyst recommendations, profitability, institutional ownership and valuation. This table compares Globant and Verisk Analytics' net margins, return on equity and return on assets. This table compares Globant and Verisk Analytics' revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation. Verisk Analytics has higher revenue and earnings than Globant.

This call is being recorded. At this time, for opening remarks and introductions, I would like to turn the call over to Verisk's Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Mr. Lee Shavel. Mr. Shavel, please go ahead. We appreciate you joining us today for a discussion of our first quarter of 2018 financial results. With me on the call this morning are Scott Stephenson, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Mark Anquillare, Chief Operating Officer. Following comments by Scott, Mark and myself, highlighting some key points about our financial performance, we will open the call for your questions. The earnings release referenced on this call as well as the associated 10-Q can be found in the Investors section of our website, verisk.com. The earnings release has also been attached to an 8-K that we have furnished to the SEC. We also filed an 8-K on April 26, 2018, with a description of our business segment recasting. A replay of this call will be available for 30 days on our website and by dial-in. Finally, 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. 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 filings. Now, I will turn the call over to Scott Stephenson. The first quarter was another example of our team achieving a high level of organic revenue growth, which remains the most important measure of our vitality as an organization. This growth was a product of our traditional multilevel growth plan including, first, the development of new customers for existing solutions, such as was seen in our claims analytics platform; secondly, the cross-selling of our existing solutions to existing customers as seen in our imagery solutions and upstream oil and gas analytics; and thirdly, new products including insurance data hosting. Over the last 90 days, I was particularly impressed by the quality of our engagement with many large leading customers resulting in real-time business wins and opportunities into the future. We continue to enjoy visits from the most senior leaders at some of our biggest customers who are looking to get closer to our pipeline of innovations. We held the largest gathering in our history for customers of our catastrophe analytics solutions and we're impressed again with the level of engagement and input from our clients.