Stewart Information Services Q3 2024 Earnings Report

Stewart Information Services EPS Results

• Actual EPS: $1.17
• Consensus EPS: $0.96
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$0.21
• One Year Ago EPS: $0.86

Stewart Information Services Revenue Results

• Actual Revenue: $667.94 million
• Expected Revenue: $638.40 million
• Beat/Miss: Beat by +$29.54 million
• YoY Revenue Growth: +11.00%

Stewart Information Services Announcement Details

• Quarter: Q3 2024
• Date: 10/23/2024
• Time: After Market Closes
• Conference Call Date: Thursday, October 24, 2024
• Conference Call Time: 8:30AM ET

Stewart Information Services (NYSE:STC) (NYSE: STC) is a publicly traded provider of title insurance and real estate transaction services. The company underwrites title insurance policies for residential and commercial properties, offering lenders and property owners protection against title defects and liens. Beyond title insurance, Stewart delivers a range of ancillary services, including closing and escrow administration, property valuation, and risk mitigation solutions designed to streamline the mortgage process and reduce operational complexity for clients.

In addition to core title and settlement services, Stewart offers technology-driven products aimed at enhancing transparency and efficiency in real estate transactions. These include digital closing platforms, automated document preparation, property data analytics and search tools that support due diligence and underwriting. The company’s integrated service model enables mortgage lenders, real estate professionals and corporate clients to access end-to-end transaction capabilities through a single point of contact, backed by regional expertise and compliance support.

Founded in 1893 in Galveston, Texas, Stewart Information Services has grown from a regional title company into a global enterprise headquartered in Houston. The firm operates across the United States and maintains a presence in Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, Ireland and select international markets. Stewart’s long-standing history in the industry is supported by an experienced management team and a network of local offices that deliver tailored services while leveraging the company’s national and international infrastructure.

Stewart Information Services Q3 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Key Takeaways

• Q3 financial results: Stewart reported net income of $30 million (or $1.70/share) on $668 million in revenue, with adjusted net income rising to $33 million and title segment pretax income up 27% year-over-year.
• Housing market contraction: The U.S. existing home sales fell another 3%, marking 37 consecutive months of year-over-year declines and ongoing affordability barriers. Management expects 2025 to be a transitional year leading to a more normalized market in 2026.
• Segment performance: Commercial revenues jumped 30%—driven by energy and multifamily deals—agency gross revenues grew 6%, and Real Estate Solutions pretax margins improved to 7.7%, reflecting broad-based strength.
• Strategic investments: The company is upgrading title production and data management technologies, enhancing search capabilities and expanding talent to improve customer experience and capture market share on recovery.
• Dividend increase: Stewart raised its annual dividend to $2.00 per share—the fourth consecutive annual raise—underscoring confidence in its long-term cash flow and capital allocation strategy.

Presentation

[Operator]

Hello, and thank you for joining the Stewart Information Services third quarter 2024 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have an opportunity to ask a question during the question-and-answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. Please note that today's call is being recorded. Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It is now my pleasure to turn today's conference over to Kat Bass, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

[Kat Bass, Director of Investor Relations at Stewart Information Services]

Thank you for joining us today for Stewart's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. We will be discussing results that were released yesterday after the close. Joining me today are CEO Fred Eppinger and CFO David Hisey. To listen online, please go to the stewart.com website to access the link for this conference call. This conference call may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the company's press release and other filings with the SEC for a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. During our call, we will discuss some non-GAAP measures. For reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures, please refer to the appendix in today's earnings release, which is available on our website at stewart.com. Let me now turn the call over to Fred.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Thank you for joining us today for Stewart's third quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Yesterday, we released financial results for the quarter, which data we'll review with you shortly. I'd like to start the call by sharing our outlook on the overall housing market, followed by an update on the continued progress we've made in each of our core business lines. Before jumping into these discussions, I wanted to take a moment to express our sympathies for the many people affected by Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton. Our thoughts are with the many communities impacted by these storms, and we have and we will continue to find ways to support these communities in their efforts to rebuild. I am very pleased with the results for the quarter, given the continued contraction of the market.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

At the end of the quarter, we reached thirty-seven consecutive months of year-over-year reduction in existing home sales. This quarter, we saw existing home sales decrease another 3%. In this environment, we continue to focus on growing our business and improving our operations and our offerings. We feel our performance reflects the effort we have put in over the past four years on our journey. We remain dedicated to positioning ourselves well for the market recovery and feel confident that we will have significant upside in a more normalized market from the actions we have taken to improve the company. This has been an interesting quarter for both the economy at large and housing in the U.S.. While inventory has continued to progressively improve over the past several months, the sentiment improved temporarily.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

The trend of historically low housing volumes lingers, with just 2.5% of homes changing hands year to date through August, one of the lowest turnover rates we have experienced in the U.S. in decades. Affordability remains a hardship and barrier to entry for many would-be buyers. In September, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates for the first time in four years, which resulted in some temporary green shoots by way of mortgage applications. But we see things leveling back off as mortgage rates have settled in around the mid-six level, and typical seasonality plays out. All of this is on top of the upcoming elections, which lends to a continuation of the very choppy market.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Our view remains, however, that 2025 will be a transitional year, leading to a more normal housing market in 2026, which we define as 5 million existing homes sold on an annual basis. Turning to our operations, we remain focused on building an improved competitive position by executing upon a disciplined operating model, while also identifying efficiencies to prepare ourselves for the market rebound. We are dedicated to growing share and attractive markets across all our lines of business, and we have positioned each business to do so. We have made great advancements in improving our customers' experience in all channels through upgrades in our technology, capabilities, and operations. We have implemented technologies to enhance our title production processes and are working on utilizing technologies to improve our data management and access. We continue to focus on attracting and retaining key talent.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

As we know, Stewart is becoming the best home for the industry-leading talent to grow with us as the market improves. We've been diligent in managing our direct operations segment to protect our corner of the market and our margin, as this segment most immediately feels the impact of a suppressed residential housing market. Strategically, our direct operation business remains focused on expansion efforts and targeted MSAs through both organic and inorganic means. We keep a pulse on the markets we are in, as well as those we're not, to ensure we are operating to our fullest potential across the country. Choppy housing market conditions have slowed acquisition-related activity in recent history. However, we remain very positive about the future outlook for opportunities and maintain a warm pipeline in preparation for an improved market. Our top priority in this business is to grow our share in attractive markets.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Our commercial services businesses have been a strong performer over the last several quarters, as we feel the positive effects of our efforts to grow our share in critical geographies and channels. We have made a lot of investments in talent across our commercial operations so that we have the right people in place to maximize our growth potential. We are also investing in upgrading technology to support our business and to provide a better customer experience for our clients. We expect our commercial transaction momentum to continue, but we know near-term commercial market challenges may present themselves depending on some of the economic variables that we previously mentioned. Our agency team remains focused on driving share gaining into the attractive market, agency markets by adding new agent partners, as well as growing our share with existing agents.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

We are focused on improving our position, particularly in 15 target states, and have seen solid progress in a number of these states already. Our improved support services and enhanced abilities around servicing commercial agents allows us to stand out to our agents. We will continue to build on these improvements to differentiate our service and offerings to better serve our agent partners. Our Real Estate Solutions business maintained solid financial results and growth in the third quarter. The Real Estate Solutions team is focused on gaining share with the top lenders and cross-selling our products as we leverage our improved portfolio of services. The current market poses some challenge to our cross-selling initiatives, but overall, we continue to see share gains from both existing clients and new client introductions. We expect continued momentum in this space as the market improves.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Across the enterprise, we are thoughtfully managing all lines of business and remain intentional with our investment in expense management. We have experienced an increase in other operating expense percentages, driven by significant growth in two of our businesses, commercial and Real Estate Solutions. In commercial, we encounter higher outside data and search fees to service our customers, and in Real Estate Solutions, other operating expenses are a higher percentage of mix due to use of outside services and data. To date, we are very pleased with the margins we are achieving from our meaningful growth in agency services, data solutions and in commercial. Overall, we remain prudent in our expense management to ensure we achieve both near and long-term goals.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Our leadership team has an execution-based mindset that we feel will allow us to achieve low double-digit pre-tax margins as we return to a more normal five million unit purchase market. We remain very positive about the long-term outlook for the real estate market and are focused on our journey to become the premier title services company. We believe in the strength of the company and are committed to fortifying Stewart for long-term growth and performance. To reiterate this view, in September, we announced an increase in our annual dividend from $1.90 a share to $2 a share. This is the fourth year in a row we have increased our dividend to shareholders. We have and will continue to position ourselves well to be able to capitalize on the opportunities that this housing market will provide.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

I want to thank our customers and agent partners for their continued trust. We are committed to doing the best to serve you with excellence. Finally, I'd like to end my remarks by extending my thanks to our employees. We would not be where we are today without the dedication of our employees and their commitment to bettering our company. Your efforts had a tremendous impact on Stewart, and we are pleased to share this quarter that we were named as one of the 2024-2025 best companies to work for by U.S. News & World Report. Thank you for your loyalty and efforts on our journey. David, I'll now turn it over to you to provide the update on our results.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Fred. My deepest sympathies as well to those impacted by the hurricanes. I appreciate the outstanding service of our associates, and I'm grateful for the continued support of our customers. As Fred noted, the market continues to be challenging. Existing home sales struggle and mortgage rates came down about 50 basis points from mid-August to end of September, but did not have a meaningful impact on volume, and it's subsequently increased. Yesterday, Stewart reported third quarter net income of $30 million or $1.7 per diluted share on total revenues of $668 million. As presented in Appendix A of our press release, we use adjustments primarily for net, realized and unrealized gains and losses, acquired intangibles amortization, and other expenses for additional performance measures.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

On an adjusted basis, third quarter net income was $33 million, or $1.17 per diluted share, compared to $24 million or $0.86 per diluted share in the third quarter of 2023. In the Title segment, total operating revenues improved $31 million or 6%, primarily driven by higher revenues from our domestic, commercial, and agency operations, while our non-commercial revenues were comparable to the prior year quarter. Title segment pre-tax income improved by $10 million or 27%, primarily driven by higher revenues. After adjustments for purchase and intangible amortization and other items, the Title segment's adjusted pre-tax income was $43 million, which was slightly better compared to the prior year quarter, while adjusted pre-tax margins were comparable.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

On our direct title business, total open orders in the third quarter improved by 8%, while total closed orders were 2% lower, primarily due to lower purchase orders resulting from the slower residential market, as previously noted. Our domestic commercial operations generated another good performance with $16 million or 30% higher revenues, primarily due to higher transaction size and volume in the energy and multifamily sectors. Average commercial fee per file improved 25% to $17,700, compared to $14,200 in the prior year quarter. Domestic residential fee per file improved slightly to $3,000. With our agency operations, gross agency revenues increased $17 million or 6%, while net revenues improved $2 million, primarily due to a slightly higher average retention rate due to geographic mix.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

On title losses, total title loss expense decreased 4%, primarily due to a favorable claim experience, which also resulted in a slightly lower title loss ratio for this quarter versus the prior year quarter. For the full year 2024, we expect our title losses to average around 4%. Regarding the Real Estate Solutions segment, pre-tax income improved by $5 million, driven by higher revenues in our credit-related data and valuation services business. Pre-tax margin was 7.7% in the third quarter, compared to 3.8% in the prior year quarter. And then excluding acquisition intangible, adjusted pre-tax margin in the third quarter was 13.4 compared to 13% last year. On consolidated operating expenses, our employee cost ratio improved to 30% from 31% last year, primarily driven by higher revenues.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

Our other operating cost ratio increased to 24% compared to 22%, primarily driven by increased credit information and services expenses in our Real Estate Solutions business and higher outside search costs in commercial. Recall, in our RES businesses that they're very data dependent, so as their revenues increase, our other operating expenses and ratio do as well. Our financial position continues to be strong in support of our customers, employees in the real estate market. At September 30, 2024, our total cash and investments were approximately $370 million in excess of statutory premium reserve requirements. In addition, we also have a fully available $200 million line of credit facility. Total stockholders' equity at September 30, 2024 was approximately $1.4 billion, with a book value of $51 per share.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

Our net cash provided by operations in the third quarter was $76 million, which was $17 million higher than the prior year quarter, primarily due to improved net income. Again, thank you to all our customers and associates. We remain confident in our service to the real estate markets. I'll turn it back to Fred for any questions or comments. No, I think we can go to questions.

[Bose George, Managing Director at KBW]

Yes.

[David Hisey, CFO at Stewart Information Services]

Operator?

[Bose George, Managing Director at KBW]

Yes.

[Operator]

Certainly. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. You may withdraw your question at any time by pressing star two. Once again, that is star and one, and we'll pause a moment to allow any questions to queue. We'll take our first question from Bose George with KBW. Please go ahead.

[Bose George, Managing Director at KBW]

Morning, Hey, guys. Good morning. Actually, first, just on the commercial fee profile, you know, the, obviously big increase year over year, is that just larger deals that you're seeing in the market? Or is there any benefit from the New York Title acquisition just in terms of the deal sizes they were doing there?

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

You know, it is just because of a mix of business, and it's a little bouncy, but this year, because we've obviously had outsized growth and it's kind of broad-based in the categories, but the category that's the biggest is our energy. And the alternative energy deals tend to be larger, right? And so that kind of, you know, skewed the average deal size a little bit. But it is a little bit of a bouncy number, you know, quarter-to-quarter. But again, it's from the mix. I look at closings this month, it has a lot, or this quarter has a lot to do with the energy percent.

[Bose George, Managing Director at KBW]

Okay, great. Thanks. And then actually, when I look at your order count, that other segment, you know, ramped up relative, I mean, stronger than the purchase and refi. You know, can you remind me, is there, you know, some sort of geography issues there where stuff that might have gone through purchase and refi, you know, kind of go through there now, or is there something like that?

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Yeah, so that's driven a little bit by our bulk business, which, if you have a big deal, there's some fluctuation in volumes. This quarter we had a couple of large transactions. It's a little bit bumpy because of where those deals are. Yeah, so in the single-family rental business, right, those tend to be larger transactions, so there was a big bulk order that came in.

[Bose George, Managing Director at KBW]

Okay. Okay, great. Thank you.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Thank you very much, Bose.

[Operator]

Once again, as a reminder, that is star and one for your questions. We will take our next question from John Campbell with Stephens Inc. Please go ahead.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Morning, John.

[John Campbell, MD of Equity Research at Stephens Inc]

Hey, guys. Good morning. Good morning. Fred, back to your commentary around the normalized five million market. In the past I think you talked to, like, a 10% margin target with that type of backdrop. I'm, I'm hoping you can maybe revisit that target, and also if you could clarify if that 10% target is on a GAAP basis or adjusted with the add back of purchase amortization.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Yeah. Yeah. So again, it's about eleven and a half, I think, John, now. I talked about, particularly probably, the last four or five quarters, we've implemented some interesting things on data management and centralization of some of our search stuff. So we're now, my view, that number at a normal market is probably eleven and a half or so. And I think about that all in GAAP, okay? Because, again, it just, when I'm-- you know, it's kind of leveraging the investments we've made across the entire company and the ability to kind of grow share, kind of, and the efficiency of our overall operating models gets us there. So I've talked about it as a total. And so again, it's-

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

... You know, and one of the interesting things, like, I think, look at the last nine months as a company. You know, we've grown in a market that's flat to down in general, right? Everything, particularly in existing home sales, has gone down for 37 months, but in a down market, we've grown revenue 9%, but our margin has increased 14%, and our earnings have increased about 24%, so you can see the leverage of us growing share and how it helps. There's a lot of leverage in the system, and what's particularly interesting about that leverage is that if the purchase market grows, it helps us the most, because that's where we have the most fixed costs, right?

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

That's where we have our direct operations with our multiple, you know, lots and lots and lots of locations, lots of distribution. And so that's even more leverage to growth for us. I still believe that's a good number. And I do believe that as you, as we grow, we can manage our margins. But it is the geography of the growth helps a lot, right? If the geography is kind of in the place where you have higher fixed costs, the direct, it's a little bit better.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

But it's pretty much good everywhere because, you know, if you look at our numbers in the last nine months, we've kind of held serve a little bit in direct, and the rest of our growth has come from agency and commercial services, and we still see leverage in the margin enhancement. So I feel good about the kind of guidance that I've given in the past. I hope that's helpful.

[John Campbell, MD of Equity Research at Stephens Inc]

Yeah, very helpful. Thank you. And then I saw an update from Redfin this morning. They're saying that their pending home sales rose about 3.5% over the last four-week period, year over year. That was a little surprising to us, just given the recent spike in rates. I'm just curious what you guys are seeing on both purchase and refi. Are you seeing any kind of notable response from consumers as rates tick higher?

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Yeah, so that's a great question. So we saw it too, right? But the question is, the difference between pending and closing, is kind of a mystery during this kind of market, right? So we've seen a lot of cancellations with spiky rates. But that could be a help in the next, you know, that should translate into existing home sales in the next quarter being a little bit better. To David's point, like, it was almost, you know this, but the sentiment when they first changed rates, and actually a couple of weeks before that, the sentiment was quite good, and you could feel some of the activity. Then it kind of flipped on us about, I don't know, three weeks ago, as the ten year started going back up and interest rate went back.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

So you can see it in the refi. We also saw a nice little pop in refi orders. My question is: If you haven't locked, you know, is that going to hold? Or if you haven't locked in a rate or whatever, are you going to see a backup again a little bit? So the way I would describe it is I feel like we're bouncing around off the bottom. And so we could see a little bit of help or it could go the other way. I do think in commercial, and it's hard to know that until everybody reports, but I think what we're going to find for the first time in the quarter, that there's going to be some growth in commercial.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

You know, for us, we've grown a lot, but I just feel like this. We're going to see a more positive commercial environment for sure, and I think that's going to continue, but it's a great question because there's a lot of moving pieces right now, and I kind of, I just, again, I wasn't surprised when we saw the existing homes be down. I think it was four and some change for this last month, because it's kind of It had the sentiment was better than the activity, right? Almost. But I saw that Redfin thing too, and that's a hopeful sign, you know?

[John Campbell, MD of Equity Research at Stephens Inc]

Yeah, that's a good point. And I, you know, I've noticed on our purchase orders, the closing ratio is lower than average. So the cancellation rate and things like that is kind of embedded there. One more, if I could squeeze in. Kind of back to Bose's question around the other orders. If I look at just your purchase orders, if I look at your two top competitors, I mean, you guys have been, last couple of months, down double digits year over year on a kind of closed order per day basis. Your top competitors have been kind of flattish. But on the other hand, on the other order side, you guys are putting up really good results.

[John Campbell, MD of Equity Research at Stephens Inc]

I don't know if there's a differential there, or maybe there's a mix shift, or some of those might have been categorized as purchase orders in the past that are now falling into other. Maybe if you could provide a little bit more commentary there.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Yeah, I don't think so, but it's a great question because it's like I've in the last, particularly last, kind of few months, there's been a little bit of a differentiation, particularly with one competitor, kind of an eight. And so I took that and went back. The way we look at it is MSA by MSA, and so we actually track share in every one of our MSAs. And what I'm seeing is that we're holding serve against the specific competitors and against the market in every market we're in. There's a little bit down in a couple and a little bit up in others, but we're holding serve. And so, it's not translating into revenue differential. So I don't. I kind of, I'm struggling a little bit.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

I don't know if what's recorded versus some of the different competitors is different or what, but I'm not really worried. Now, we're not growing share in direct right now, given the nature of what's happening. Although we've started a bunch of organic initiatives around micro-market expansions and commercial expansions, which are paying some dues, so I feel that that's going to get even better before we do transactions. But I don't see share softness that is translating in orders. So it's a really good. That's a, it's a great question. Now, what the three things it could be, right? Is we are much weaker in the West, like our geographies are in the West. The other thing, could there be some...

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

We don't have as many high-end homes, because as you know, the market is a different animal at the high end than at the low end. The low end is pretty slow. But there could be something in that, but I'm pretty confident that our shares hold in direct, and that our trends are good in all the other businesses as far as big growth. But again, it's one of those things you kind of go, I see the same thing and I keep looking. Because if you go for thirty-six months, we were ahead of everybody for a lot of months in a row. It's been. It's kind of unfolded in the last handful of months, where there's a little difference the other way. But again, I feel good about the share position and feel good about what we're doing.

[John Campbell, MD of Equity Research at Stephens Inc]

Okay, that's good. Good color. Thanks, guys.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Thank you.

[Operator]

There are no further questions at this time. I'll turn the call to Fred for any closing remarks.

[Fred Eppinger, CEO at Stewart Information Services]

Yeah. I just want to thank everybody for their time this morning, and their interest in Stewart. Thank you.

[Operator]

Thank you, and this does conclude today's program. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect at any time.

Participants

Executives

• David Hisey, CFO
• Fred Eppinger, CEO
• Kat Bass, Director of Investor Relations

Analysts

• John Campbell, MD of Equity Research at Stephens Inc
• Bose George, Managing Director at KBW