Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (FNF) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good morning, and welcome to FNF's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Lisa Foxworthy-Parker, Senior Vice President, Investor and External Relations. Please go ahead.

Thanks, operator, and welcome, everyone. I'm joined today by Mike Nolan, CEO; and Tony Park, CFO. We look forward to addressing your questions following our prepared remarks. F&G's management team, including Conor Murphy, CEO and President; and Mark Wiltse, Interim CFO, will also be available for Q&A. We're also glad to welcome F&G's incoming CFO, Mike Bailey, who joined the company earlier this week and will listen in on today's call. Today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements and projections under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act which do not guarantee future events or performance. We do not undertake any duty to revise or update such statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or changes in strategy. Please refer to our most recent quarterly and annual reports and other SEC filings for details on important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied. This morning's discussion also includes non-GAAP measures, which management believes are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business. Non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to GAAP where required and in accordance with SEC rules within our earnings materials available on the company's investor website. Please note that today's call is being recorded and will be available for webcast replay. And with that, I'll hand the call over to Mike Nolan.

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning. We are very pleased with our second quarter results, which reflect sustained momentum across our company. Both of our businesses are well positioned for the current market and for longer-term growth. I'd also like to thank our employees for achieving another quarter of industry-leading performance. We are generating greater momentum in sequential daily opened orders in purchase and refinance relative to our peers while also delivering strength in commercial revenue trending towards historic highs. All of this is a direct result of their exceptional contributions to stay ahead of our competition. Starting with Title, we delivered adjusted pretax Title earnings of $448 million for the second quarter, up 33% over the second quarter of 2025. This generated an industry-leading adjusted pretax title margin of 17.8% for the second quarter, an increase of 230 basis points over the second quarter of 2025. Our second quarter results reflect continued strong performance across the business, highlighted by strength in our commercial, residential and agency businesses. Additionally, our disciplined expense management drove strong incremental margins. Looking at our title results more closely, starting with purchase, U.S. existing home sales remain at historically low levels at around the 4 million annual pace due to elevated mortgage rates and housing market dynamics. We were encouraged to see increases in daily purchase orders opened over the prior year and sequential quarters steadily outperforming relative to peers. Our daily purchase orders opened were up 3% over the second quarter of 2025, up 7% over the first quarter of 2026 and up 4% for the month of July versus the prior year. Our refinance volumes continue to be responsive to 30-year mortgage rates, although accounting for only 7% of our direct revenue in the second quarter. Refinance orders opened were 1,600 per day in the second quarter as compared to 1,300 in the second quarter of 2025 and 2,000 in the first quarter of 2026. Volumes remained resilient at 1,500 per day in the month of July as mortgage rates moved higher. Our refinance orders opened per day were up 16% over the second quarter of 2025, down 22% from the first quarter of 2026 and up 15% for the month of July versus the prior year. For commercial, we are on track for a very strong and potentially record year with direct commercial revenue of $778 million in the first 6 months, up 24% over $626 million in the first half of 2025. We continue to see growth in both national and local markets daily orders opened, up 3% and 10%, respectively, in the second quarter over the second quarter of 2025. Total commercial orders opened were 919 per day, up 7% over the second quarter of 2025, up 1% over the first quarter of 2026 and up 2% for the month of July versus the prior year. We remain bullish on commercial due to several factors. First, we have a strong pipeline of commercial deals slated to close, with broad strength across geographies and asset classes, including industrial, data centers, multifamily, affordable housing, retail and energy. Next, our scale and expertise position us to participate in the largest transactions in the market. We closed 29 transactions generating over $1 million each in premiums in the second quarter across multiple asset classes in both our direct and agency businesses. This is reflected in our higher trending commercial fee per file. Third, our current performance reflects the U.S. office real estate market in the early stage of a fragmented recovery. We believe this sector's eventual rebound will provide a potential tailwind as we look ahead. Finally, commercial real estate activity is sustained by ongoing property sale and refinance activity that contribute to overall order volumes as well. To bring it all together, total orders opened were steady and averaged 6,200 per day in the second quarter. For the month of July, total orders opened were 5,900 per day, up 7% over the prior year. Looking ahead, we expect commercial momentum to continue, but remain cautious on residential purchase and refinance activity for the remainder of the year. We have also recently had higher strategic investment in active recruiting and a handful of attractive tuck-in acquisitions. While these strategic investments build the business for the long term, they do typically front-load expenses while revenues take a few months to ramp up and reach full productivity. We expect to see this near-term effect on our results, including some modest compression to adjusted pretax title margin in the second half of the year. Over time, once mortgage rates improve, we believe residential purchase and refinance activity will accelerate and trend toward historical levels. This recovery represents additional earnings power given the operational leverage that we have built into our model. This operational leverage also comes through our technology and AI investments. As a reminder, FNF and the title industry hold a unique position in real estate transactions. FNF provides the rails upon which real estate transactions run by orchestrating complex multiparty settlements, safeguarding the movement of funds and mitigating fraud in every transaction. Through our continuing technology innovations and embedding AI tools into these workflows, we believe that we can drive significant value over time by enhancing efficiency in our customers' experience, reducing risk and strengthening fraud prevention across real estate transactions. Momentum also continues with our inHere digital transaction platform that is scaled to a fully deployed enterprise solution. During 2025, inHere reached nearly 2.8 million unique users and engaged 80% of our residential sale transactions. For the first 6 months of 2026, we have maintained engagement at 80% of our residential sales transactions, demonstrating deep integration into daily workflows. This foundational technology drives efficiency, transparency and a superior customer experience in the escrow closing process with built-in compliance and enhanced fraud protection. We are in our seventh year of inHere and recently launched the property monitoring component in the second quarter in 35 states. This service provides visibility and alerts for a property that is provided to customers as a complementary post-closing service from FNF title companies. We have received positive feedback from our customers. And once property monitoring is fully deployed, our footprint is expected to far exceed others in the industry. These successful and pioneering investments in technology have and continue to play a critical role in our ability to maintain our industry-leading position for adjusted pretax title margin. Turning now to our F&G segment. I'd like to take a brief moment to congratulate Conor on his promotion to CEO and President of F&G, officially welcome Mike Bailey as CFO of F&G and thank Mark Wiltse, who has recently served as Interim CFO. Following F&G's recent executive leadership transition, we expect Conor and Mike to continue the strategic momentum toward a more fee-based, higher-margin and less capital-intensive business model. As previously announced, Chris Blunt will continue as a Director of F&G and as Peak Altitude's CEO, a business that Chris has been building. F&G has invested nearly $700 million in 4 owned distribution investments that generated $80 million of EBITDA for the full year 2025. Chris has launched a formal process to explore strategic alternatives for Peak Altitude to capture its significant growth opportunities and unlock the intrinsic value for both F&G's and FNF's shareholders. We believe that both F&G and subsidiary Peak Altitude have plenty of runway ahead to continue growing AUM, growing earnings and growing shareholder value. I would also like to take a moment to personally thank Chris for all of his work and effort over the past few years leading F&G. Under Chris' leadership, F&G has significantly expanded its products and distribution and nearly tripled assets under management since joining the company in 2019. Turning to F&G's results. Assets under management before reinsurance have nearly reached the $75 billion threshold at June 30. Gross AUM of $74.7 billion was up 8% over the prior year. On a stand-alone basis, F&G reported GAAP equity, excluding AOCI, of $6 billion at quarter end and has grown its book value per share, excluding AOCI, to $45.93, up 68% since the 2020 acquisition. With that, let me now turn the call over to Tony to review FNF's second quarter financial performance and provide additional insights.

Thank you, Mike. Starting with our consolidated results, we generated $4.1 billion in total revenue in the second quarter. Excluding net recognized gains and losses, our total revenue was $3.7 billion as compared with $3.5 billion in the second quarter of 2025. We reported second quarter net earnings of $288 million, including net recognized gains of $333 million, versus net earnings of $278 million, including $98 million of net recognized gains in the second quarter of 2025. Adjusted net earnings were $370 million or $1.39 per diluted share compared with $318 million or $1.16 per share in the second quarter of 2025. The Title segment contributed $339 million, the F&G segment contributed $65 million and the Corporate segment had an adjusted net loss of $6 million before eliminating $28 million of dividend income from F&G in the consolidated financial statements. Turning to second quarter financial highlights specific to the Title segment. Our Title segment generated $2.5 billion in total revenue in the second quarter, excluding net recognized gains of $14 million, compared with $2.2 billion in the second quarter of 2025. Direct premiums increased 21% over the prior year, agency premiums increased 15% and escrow title-related and other fees increased 13%. Personnel costs increased 9%, and other operating expenses increased 15%. All in, the Title business generated adjusted pretax title earnings of $448 million, up 33% over $337 million in the second quarter of 2025, and a 17.8% adjusted pretax title margin in the quarter versus 15.5% in the prior year quarter. Our title and corporate investment portfolio totaled $5.1 billion at June 30. Interest and investment income in the Title and Corporate segments was $93 million, excluding income from F&G dividends to the holding company. For the next 12 months, we expect a range of $95 million to $100 million in interest and investment income per quarter, assuming no Fed rate actions, with increasing 1031 Exchange and fixed income balances, partially offset by lower cash balances. In addition, we expect approximately $28 million per quarter of common and preferred dividend income from F&G to the Corporate segment. Our title claims paid of $67 million were $11 million lower than our provision of $78 million for the second quarter. The carried reserve for title claim losses is approximately $15 million or 1% above the actuary central estimate. We continue to provide for title claims at 4.5% of total title premiums. Next, turning to financial highlights specific to the F&G segment. Since F&G hosted its earnings call earlier this morning and provided a thorough update, I will provide a few key highlights. F&G's AUM before reinsurance increased to $74.7 billion at June 30, up 8% over the prior year. This includes retained assets under management of $55.9 billion. F&G's retained investment portfolio performed very well once again this quarter. The portfolio is high quality, with 97% of fixed maturities being investment-grade. It is well matched to the liability profile and diversified across asset types. Credit-related impairments have remained low and stable, averaging 6 basis points over the past 5 years and a modest 2 basis points in the first half of this year. F&G reported gross sales of $2.7 billion for the second quarter, comprised of $2 billion of core sales and $700 million of opportunistic sales. This mix reflects pricing discipline and capital allocation to highest-return opportunities. Core retail sales of indexed annuities and indexed life were $1.8 billion for the second quarter. This is one of our strongest quarters on record for core retail sales and reflects continued momentum for F&G despite another quarter of contraction in industry FIA sales as compared with the prior year quarter. Core institutional sales of pension risk transfer were $200 million for the second quarter as expected, ahead of the seasonal increase in PRT sales typically seen in the second half of the year. Opportunistic sales were primarily comprised of $600 million of funding agreements as well as $100 million of multiyear guaranteed annuities, which we have deemphasized due to returns currently below threshold. F&G's net sales were $1.5 billion in the second quarter. This reflects flow reinsurance in line with capital targets for multiyear guaranteed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. Adjusted net earnings for the F&G segment were $65 million for the second quarter, reflecting our approximate 72% ownership stake, compared with $89 million in the second quarter of 2025, which reflected our approximate 82% ownership stake. F&G's core spread remains consistent as the business maintained disciplined pricing. F&G continues to provide an important complement to our Title business. In the first 6 months, the F&G segment contributed 23% of FNF's adjusted net earnings, down from 32% for the first half of 2025. Turning to capital and liquidity. FNF continues to maintain a strong balance sheet and balanced capital allocation strategy. Our track record has generated a steady level of free cash flow, allowing us to continue to invest in our business and build for the long term. We also continue to return excess cash to shareholders. During the second quarter, FNF returned approximately $195 million of capital to shareholders through $138 million of common dividends and $57 million of share repurchases. This brought capital returned to shareholders during the first 6 months of the year to approximately $417 million through $278 million of dividends and $139 million of share repurchases. From a capital allocation perspective, we ended 2025 with $659 million in cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company. During the first 6 months, our cash position and cash generation funded $278 million of common dividends paid, $36 million of holding company interest expense and $139 million in opportunistic share repurchases, all while keeping pace with wage inflation and funding the continued higher spend in risk and technology required in today's landscape. We ended the second quarter with $457 million in cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company, which is about 70% of the amount held at year-end 2025. This concludes our prepared remarks, and let me now turn the call back to our operator for questions.

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Bose George with KBW.

Actually, first, just on the margin. Mike, I think you talked about a modest compression in the title pretax margin in the second half of '26. Is that relative to the first half or a year-over-year comparison? And then can you just -- I think you touched on it, but just go over the drivers again.

Yes, I would say it's probably in relation to the second quarter primarily. And as you know, there's always puts and takes around the margins, including the mix of direct and agency, commercial performance, the non-title businesses in the Title segment. And then the -- as I talked about in the beginning, we've had some really strong recruiting this year. I think we're having our best recruiting performance these last 2 quarters as we've ever had. And then a handful of acquisitions, including a couple that we closed in July that will add a little over 200 people to the organization. So -- and then kind of the revenue doesn't come in at the same level in the beginning, but all the expense does. And then we will definitely be looking at staffing as we go through the back half of the year as we always do in relation to our orders, and we'll manage those staffing expenses accordingly.

Okay. Great. And then actually, Tony, can we get the margin by the different segments, if you have that?

Sure, Bose. Thanks. Yes, 17.8% pretax margin for the quarter, up against 15.5% in the second quarter of last year. Our direct ops were up maybe 80 basis points to a little over 26% for those -- that distributed network. Our agency business was up about 110 basis points to 8% on gross agency dollars. Our NCS units, those are our National Commercial units, just shy of 30% margin on those stand-alone, a little up from the prior year second quarter. Our loan subservicing business was down some. We had some kind of almost onetime or nonrecurring benefits in the prior year second quarter which really bolstered our margins in that business in 2025. Having said that, we're still almost at a 21% margin in loan subservicing. Home warranty had another strong quarter with an 18% margin, up almost 200 basis points. And ServiceLink also, with its centralized platform of refi and default services, was at about 24%, up a couple of hundred basis points there as well.

And next, we'll move to Mark Hughes with Truist Securities.

Yes. The purchase order outperformance you touched on, I think it sounds like some of those personnel additions and tuck-ins have been contributing to that. Anything else you would highlight?

Well, I think, Mark, it's certainly recruiting influence because we've had pretty consistent outperformance now for a number of months relative to the top peers. But I think it's also just our people, our multi-brand strategy and the support we provide to people in the field through our tech stack, our inHere digital transaction platform, our marketing spend. I mean, you put it all together, and I think it's creating a differentiation in the marketplace.

Very good. The Peak, the strategic process. I think on the earlier call, there was a reference to maybe getting a partner to take ownership of half or a bit more than half. What would be done? Would the goal be to set a valuation mark? Would it be to take those proceeds and step up capital management? What's the kind of the thinking there?

Yes. Mark, it's Conor. Yes, that's fair. The strategic option that we probably favor at this early stage would be a 51% partner so we can continue to grow the underlying business. We have great faith in the expansion opportunity there. But I think to the second part of your question, in terms of proceeds, yes, I think we would anticipate bringing those in. And just thinking through the most logical mix of how we would deploy those, but certainly a noteworthy element in terms of continuing to grow the value of the business.

Okay. So would that be used for future M&A? Or would capital management be one of the alternatives, [ given ] it's not an especially capital-intensive business?

I would imagine -- I would say that it's more likely growing core business opportunities than M&A for us. I think that the Peak entity with a partner will focus on M&A on their part, but I think they'll do that with their own funding.

Very good. And then, Mike, you talked about the property monitoring. Could you talk a little bit more about that? Does that move the dial in terms of margins or business volumes? What is the thinking there?

Yes. I think it's just -- we want to provide more value to our buyers and sellers and really, our buyers, and by extension, to the real estate community. It's not something for margins. We're offering it as a complementary monitoring for people who close with us. And we're doing it at a scale really nobody else can do it at. So we think it's a value-add. We think it will be recognized well by market participants, and we're excited to be expanding it.

So that helps maintain relationships, grow relationships and take [ market share ]?

Certainly, I think it's just another value-add from the FNF family to be on top of all the other things that we do to bring value to our customers.

[Operator Instructions] And next, we'll move to Oscar Nieves with Stephens Inc.