Despite Provision for Higher Delinquencies, Radian Profits

Even though Radian Group Inc. had a mortgage insurance provision of $142.8 million because of higher delinquencies, the company still saw net profits of $231.9 million ($2.82 per share) for the second quarter. For the same period last year, the Philadelphia-based company lost $392.5 million ($4.91 per share). Still mortgage insurance claims paid of $167.7 million were lower than Radian forecast. For the third quarter, the company said it expects between $275 million and $300 million in mortgage insurance claims; for the full year, it predicts $1.1 million, down from between $1.2 million and $1.4 million. Radian wrote $5.5 billion of primary new insurance during the quarter. The company trumpeted the fact that nearly all of it was prime quality, with 98.4% having a credit score of 680 or higher. Furthermore, in the 2009 book of business, Radian said there has been a significant decrease in the number of early payment defaults, which shows it has improved its underwriting. The mortgage insurance segment had net income of $13 million, compared with a net loss of $434 million one year ago. Radian's most profitable segment was its financial guaranty business, with net income of $215.7 million, up from $32.5 million for the second quarter of 2008. As of June 30, Radian had a primary insurance default rate of 14.84%, compared with 8.36% on the same day in 2008. Persistency as of the end of the second quarter 2009 was 87%, up from 81.2% a year ago.