Title insurers optimistic about the future as rates peak

November 22, 2023 7:28 AM

It was another quarter of mixed results for the publicly traded title insurance underwriters.

However, at three firms, the biggest news happened after the third quarter ended. While not exactly a shocker, the fact that after a decade Old Republic International has finally given up on reviving its mortgage insurance subsidiary should cheer investors.

First American became the last of the big four underwriters to settle no-poaching allegations with New York State, and ended up with the largest fine, at $4.5 million.

Meanwhile, Fidelity National is putting more money into the life insurer it spun off; as one analyst put it, expectations were the title insurer would reduce its stake in F&G, not increase it.

BTIG analyst Soham Bhonsie expressed optimism for the sector.

"Recent trends reported by FNF, First American and to some extent Stewart Title have all had one common theme: October orders were better than expected, despite the move higher in rates," said Bhonsie, who does not cover Old Republic.

"These are all signs that point to a trough in volumes in our view, and with comps easing over for next few quarters, we think the setup for the sector heading into full year 2024 is becoming increasingly attractive."

Old Republic's cost management drove quarterly increase in pretax profits

Although down on a year-over-year basis, pretax operating income for Old Republic International's title insurance line increased versus the second quarter.

The company reported $37.4 million of pretax operating income in the third quarter, versus $34.7 million in the second quarter and $73.3 million one year ago. It was the second consecutive quarter of an increase in this item and Old Republic attributed that primarily to higher net premium and fees earned.

Direct orders opened totaled 80,519, down from 87,548 in the second quarter and 91,903 in the third quarter of 2022.

"As the challenging market continues, our approach is cost management with a long-term view focused on our strategic initiatives," Carolyn Monroe, president and CEO of Old Republic's title insurance business, said on the earnings call. "This approach helped to maintain an incremental improvement and our pretax operating income this quarter as compared to second quarter 2023 results."

Subsequent to the earnings release, Old Republic sold its remaining mortgage insurance business to Arch Capital Group for $140 million.

The run-off line made $4.5 million in the third quarter down from $7.2 million in the second quarter and $9.2 million for the third quarter of 2022.

Net premiums earned fell as expected when the company is not writing new policies, to $3.8 million from $4.3 million in the second quarter and $9.2 million one year ago.

Fidelity's net income up but title revenues sink in 3Q

After the third quarter ended, Fidelity National Financial announced it will be making a $250 million investment in the life insurer it is the 85% owner of, F&G.

Net proceeds will be used to grow assets under management, so F&G can capitalize on opportunities in the market. "FNF views this as an attractive investment given F&G's current momentum and performance which has exceeded expectations, while still preserving the company's excess liquidity as a buffer in response to market headwinds and historical low volumes in the title business," a press release said.

But Bhonsie, while expecting F&G to go out and raise capital, also believed that would end up reducing FNF's stake in the entity.

"A shift to a more pure-play title company we thought was the first step in regaining its premium valuation in the title industry," Bhonsie wrote in a research note. "The fact that FNF is choosing to increase its investment in F&G, however, speaks to the confidence it has in F&G continuing to compound earnings."

A further spin-off of the life insurer is off the table for 2024. "To be clear, however, we still think a tax-free spin is in play for 2025, but it's just going to take longer than we had initially thought," Bhonsie said.

For the third quarter, FNF reported a year-over-year improvement, to $426 million from $362 million one year ago. FNF earned $219 million in the second quarter.

Its title business, however, reported total revenue of $1.9 billion for the third quarter, an 18% decrease from $2.3 billion in the same period last year and unchanged from the second quarter.

"While residential purchase applications hit their lowest levels since 1995, we once again delivered an industry leading adjusted pre-tax title margin of 16.2%, further demonstrating our ability to navigate an extremely challenging environment," said William Foley, the chairman, in a press release. He added F&G's adjusted net earnings made up 31% of FNF's consolidated adjusted net earnings.

Opened orders fell to 318,000 from 347,000 in the second quarter and 363,000 for the third quarter of 2022.

Doma keeps shifting as losses pile up

Doma, which has yet to turn a profit since it went public in a 2021 special purpose acquisition company merger, lost $22.2 million in the third quarter, a slight improvement over the $24 million loss in the second quarter. A year ago, it lost $38.9 million.

In its earnings release, it announced Upfront Title, a product that moves the policy underwriting decision closer to when the loan is underwritten, Max Simkoff, CEO said.

"We will be making our Upfront Title product available to both mortgage software platforms as well as the government-sponsored enterprises as soon as the end of this year," Simkoff said. "This configuration of our technology will help Doma shift more of our revenue toward higher-margin software licensing revenue."

Doma is launching a pilot program with what Simkoff called one of the largest mortgage software platforms for Upfront Title.

Overall, the new product will allow Doma to shift more of our revenue to come from higher-margin software licensing.

"We believe the configuration of this new product will drive substantial growth in title insurance premium business for our underwriter as well," Simkoff said. "We anticipate being able to go live with the program by early Q1 2024, subject to agreement and documentation of final commercial terms."

As part of its plans, the company, in separate sales, divested its production offices. As a result, it did not disclose order counts in the earnings release.

First American moves into red on investment losses

First American Financial lost $1.7 million in the third quarter, versus net income of $138.5 million in the second quarter and a $2 million profit a year ago.

But the most recent quarter included net investment losses of $164 million, "primarily due to unrealized losses recognized in the venture portfolio and changes in the fair market value of equity securities as well as purchase related intangible amortization of $10 million," Mark Seaton, executive vice president and chief financial officer said on its earnings call.

Open orders totaled 157,300 in the third quarter, versus 174,600 in the second quarter and 206,200 a year ago.

"Despite these historically difficult conditions, our continued focus on expense management and strong growth in net investment income enabled us to deliver a pretax title margin of 10.5% this quarter, or 12% on an adjusted basis," CEO Ken DeGiorgio said in the earnings press release. "We expect that difficult market conditions will persist well into next year and continue to weigh on both our residential and commercial businesses."

First American owns subservicer Servicemac, whose business was impacted by the sale of client Homepoint to Mr. Cooper.

"So this quarter, we had a $3 million benefit because of deboarding fees," Seaton said. "And roughly about 40% of the loans were deboarded. So we have another, call it, 60% to come at some point next year, we're not exactly sure about the timing."

Its management expects a quarter-to-quarter decrease in investment income of roughly $5 million for the fourth quarter because of those loans that have already left Servicemac.

Stewart returns to third place in market share

On a year-over-year basis, Stewart Information Services net income was down by more than half to $14 million from $29.4 million for the third quarter of 2022. Second quarter net income at $15.8 million was also higher.

"Our third quarter results reflect the continuing slowdown in real estate market activity due to the higher interest rate environment coupled with the normal seasonality of late summer. As we expect that higher interest rates will continue for several quarters before beginning to moderate, we will continue to balance thoughtful cost discipline with investment in long-term enterprise initiatives," CEO Fred Eppinger, said in a press release.

Meanwhile, Stewart seems to be regaining business lost when the company went through financial difficulties.

"We think it's notable that the third quarter was Stewart's 10th quarter in a row of share take, which we think illustrates its growing position in the title market after years of share declines," Bhonsie said. "Driving the share take today is a combination of better talent versus prior years and improved systems that are making it easier for agents to work with the company."

The number of open orders declined by 5,707 on a year-over-year basis, to 81,267 from 85,184 in the second quarter and 86,974 in the third quarter of 2022. As a result, on the holding company level, Stewart passed Old Republic to be the third most prolific title underwriting family.

Investors Title revenue down from prior periods

Net income at Investors Title fell to $7.1 million from $7.6 million and $7.9 million one year ago.

Revenue was down 21.3% year-over-year because of decreases in title insurance business and other investment income.

"Market conditions remained challenging, as interest rates rose to levels not seen in over 20 years," J. Allen Fine, chairman, said in a press release. "Partially offsetting reductions in title insurance revenues, investment earnings continued to benefit from higher average interest rates."

Mr. Cooper writes down value of former Title365 sub

When Mr. Cooper sold Title365 to Blend, it retained a 9.9% interest in the title agency and technology company. In its third quarter earnings it disclosed it wrote the value down of Title365 by 90%.

"Blend had previously indicated that it was exploring various rights to extinguish or reduce the Title365 put option, which was most recently redeemable at $5 million," a report from Ryan Tomasello, analyst from Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, noted. "Mr. Cooper's write-off aligns with this, which would reduce a significant capital obligation for Blend."

But Blend CEO Nima Ghamsari was enthusiastic about Title365 on his company's earnings call.

"I also want to call out our title business, which, in Q3, returned to the high teens gross margin," said Ghamsari. "This is an encouraging signal because we found the right operating model even amidst historically low macroeconomic environment for this business."

Even with high mortgage rates, Gharsari remained enthused, believing Blend can continue to operate it with positive non-GAAP gross margins going forward.

Title revenue was near the high end of Blend's guidance at $11.9 million.

"Our non-GAAP Title margins improved to 17% for the third quarter, increasing meaningfully year-over-year from 5% in the third quarter this time last year and improving 6 percentage points quarter-over-quarter," Ghamsari said. "This improvement reflects the ongoing cost optimization programs we've undertaken and highlights our ability to align the cost to deliver this service within their current economic climate."