All three of the publicly traded private mortgage insurers—Radian Group, MGIC Investment Corp. and Genworth Financial—saw substantial increases in their stock prices Friday, one day after Radian released robust monthly results.
By mid-day Radian was trading at $4.43 per share, up 9.5%. At one point in trading it was 19 cents shy of its 52-week high.
MGIC,
Genworth was up 3.6% in morning trading, 20 cents a share, to $5.64.
The catalyst for the rally came from three items in Radian’s monthly activity report. Radian, which ranked second in new insurance written in 2Q, said it wrote $3.75 billion of new policies in August, up from $3.37 billion in July and
Its delinquent loan inventory also brought good news. It started the month at 97,012 units. During the period, 6,042 new notices of delinquency were received, but 5,354 loans cured, and 2,150 claims were paid. It denied claims on 727 loans or rescinded coverage. That reduced the inventory to 94,823.
Finally, the company in July and August improved its capital position by realizing $120 million in after-tax gains on securities in its investment portfolio and by increasing mortgage insurance risk ceded to a reinsurer under a quota share agreement to $1.6 billion from $1.25 billion.
