Stewart Reports Fourth Quarter 2022 Results

• Total revenues of $655.9 million ($643.2 million on an adjusted basis) compared to $961.7 million ($955.2 million on an adjusted basis) in the prior year quarter
• Net income of $13.3 million ($16.3 million on an adjusted basis) compared to $85.5 million ($83.7 million on an adjusted basis) in the prior year quarter
• Diluted EPS of $0.49 ($0.60 on an adjusted basis) compared to prior year quarter diluted EPS of $3.12 ($3.05 on an adjusted basis)

HOUSTON, Feb. 8, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE: STC) today reported net income attributable to Stewart for the fourth quarter 2022 of $13.3 million ($0.49 per diluted share), compared to net income attributable to Stewart of $85.5 million ($3.12 per diluted share) for the fourth quarter 2021. On an adjusted basis, Stewart's fourth quarter 2022 net income was $16.3 million ($0.60 per diluted share) compared to $83.7 million ($3.05 per diluted share) in the fourth quarter 2021. Fourth quarter 2022 pretax income before noncontrolling interests was $20.8 million ($24.7 million on an adjusted basis) compared to pretax income before noncontrolling interests of $114.1 million ($111.7 million on an adjusted basis) for the fourth quarter 2021.

Fourth quarter 2022 results included $12.7 million of pretax net realized and unrealized gains, primarily composed of net unrealized gains on fair value changes of equity securities investments and gains related to settlements of company-owned insurance policies, offset by $16.7 million of combined office closure, severance and regulatory settlement and litigation expenses. Fourth quarter 2021 results included $6.5 million of pretax net realized and unrealized gains, primarily composed of net unrealized gains on fair value changes of equity securities investments and net gains related to acquisition contingent liability adjustments, partially offset by net realized losses primarily related to sale of securities investments and other assets and $4.1 million of office closure costs.

"Our fourth quarter results were impacted by historically low transaction volumes due to the current economic environment and its impact on the housing industry. We have continued to manage our operations during this challenging environment with a reasonable balance of cost discipline and investment in capabilities that we expect will have a positive impact on our business over the long term," commented Fred Eppinger, chief executive officer. "We have made significant progress in becoming a stronger company and will continue to invest opportunistically to build a more resilient company. In line with our long-term strategies of improving Stewart, we are excited to welcome to the Stewart family BCHH, a national provider of title services to institutional real estate investors and lenders." 

Selected Financial Information
Summary results of operations are as follows (dollars in millions, except per share amounts, and amounts may not add as presented due to rounding):

Title Segment
Summary results of the title segment are as follows (dollars in millions, except pretax margin):

Operating revenues for the title segment decreased $254.8 million, or 30 percent, in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to the fourth quarter 2021, primarily due to volume declines in our direct title and agency operations, while total segment operating expenses decreased $154.6 million, or 21 percent, primarily as a result of lower revenues. Agency retention expenses in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased $107.8 million, or 30 percent, consistent with the 30 percent decline in gross agency revenues, while the average independent agency remittance rate in the fourth quarter 2022 was 17.6 percent compared to 18 percent in the fourth quarter 2021.

Total employee costs and other operating expenses in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased $36.2 million, or 11 percent, compared to the prior year quarter, and as a percentage of operating revenues, these expenses were 48.9 percent in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to 38.3 percent in the fourth quarter 2021, primarily due to lower revenues in the fourth quarter 2022. Title loss expense in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased $11.9 million, or 36 percent, compared to the prior year quarter, primarily due to lower title revenues. As a percentage of title revenues, title loss expense was 3.7 percent in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to 4.0 percent in the fourth quarter 2021.

The title segment's net realized and unrealized gains in the fourth quarters 2022 and 2021 included net unrealized gains of $11.2 million and $8.1 million, respectively, related to fair value changes of equity securities investments and net realized losses of $0.6 million and $0.8 million, respectively, on sale of investment securities. Additionally, the segment recorded $2.0 million of net losses related to acquisition contingent liability adjustments during the fourth quarter 2021. Investment income in the fourth quarter 2022 increased compared to the prior year quarter, primarily as a result of higher interest income resulting from increased interest rates and higher short-term investments in the fourth quarter 2022.

Direct title revenues information is presented below (dollars in millions):

Total non-commercial revenues decreased $94.0 million, or 32 percent, primarily resulting from a 55 percent decline in residential purchase and refinancing transactions during the fourth quarter 2022 compared to the prior year quarter. Domestic commercial revenues in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased $26.2 million, or 28 percent, primarily due to lower transaction volume and size compared to the fourth quarter 2021. Average domestic commercial fee per file in the fourth quarter 2022 was $15,100, which was 23 percent lower compared to $19,700 in the fourth quarter 2021, while average residential fee per file in the fourth quarter 2022 increased 45 percent to $3,500, compared to $2,400 in the prior year quarter due to a higher purchase mix in the fourth quarter 2022. Total international revenues in the fourth quarter 2022 declined by $16.0 million, or 34 percent, primarily as a result of lower transaction volumes in our Canadian operations and weaker foreign currency exchange rates against the U.S. dollar compared to the prior year quarter.

Real Estate Solutions Segment
Summary results of the real estate solutions segment are as follows (dollars in millions):

Operating revenues for the real estate solutions segment decreased in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to last year's fourth quarter primarily due to lower transaction volumes influenced by the current high interest rate environment. Combined employee costs and other operating expenses decreased 36 percent in the fourth quarter 2022, consistent with the reduced operating revenue. Net realized and unrealized gains during the fourth quarter 2021 were primarily driven by net gains related to acquisition contingent liability adjustments. Included in the total non-GAAP adjustments to pretax income were total acquired intangible asset amortization expenses in the fourth quarters 2022 and 2021 of $5.8 million and $5.6 million, respectively.

Corporate and Other Segment
The corporate and other segment recorded $2.5 million of net realized and unrealized gains in the fourth quarter 2022, primarily related to settlement of a company-owned life insurance policy, compared to $1.6 million of net realized losses in the fourth quarter 2021, primarily driven by losses on asset disposals. Segment results for the fourth quarter 2021 included a real estate brokerage company that was acquired in late 2021 and sold in early 2022. Net expenses attributable to corporate operations increased to $9.0 million in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to $7.9 million in the prior year quarter, primarily as a result of higher interest expense resulting from debt.

Expenses
Consolidated employee costs in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased $29.8 million, or 14 percent, compared to the fourth quarter 2021, primarily due to lower incentive compensation and temporary labor costs, consistent with lower operating results and volumes, partially offset by severance expenses and increased average headcount resulting from acquisitions. As a percentage of total operating revenues, consolidated employee costs increased to 30.1 percent for the fourth quarter 2022 compared to 23.3 percent in the prior year quarter, primarily due to lower operating revenues in the fourth quarter 2022.

Total other operating expenses in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased $65.8 million, or 31 percent, compared to the prior year quarter, primarily as a result of reduced costs tied to lower title and real estate solutions revenues, partially offset by higher office closure costs and regulatory settlement and litigation expenses recorded during the fourth quarter 2022. As a percentage of total operating revenues, consolidated other operating expenses for the fourth quarter 2022 were 22.8 percent compared to 22.2 percent in the fourth quarter 2021; excluding office closure costs and regulatory settlement and litigation expenses, consolidated other operating expenses were 20.6 percent in the fourth quarter 2022 compared to 21.7 percent in the prior year quarter.

Other
Net cash provided by operations in the fourth quarter 2022 decreased to $24.8 million compared to net cash provided by operations of $133.0 million in the fourth quarter 2021, primarily driven by the lower net income in the fourth quarter 2022.

Fourth Quarter Earnings Call
Stewart will hold a conference call to discuss the fourth quarter 2022 earnings at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time on Thursday, February 9, 2023. To participate, dial (800) 274-8461 (USA) or (203) 518-9843 (International) - access code STCQ422. Additionally, participants can listen to the conference call through Stewart's Investor Relations website at https://investors.stewart.com/news-and-events/events/default.aspx. The conference call replay will be available from 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time on February 9, 2023 until midnight on February 16, 2023 by dialing (800) 839-2383 or (402) 220-7202 (International).

About Stewart
Stewart (NYSE:STC) is a global real estate services company, offering products and services through our direct operations, network of Stewart Trusted Providers™ and family of companies. From residential and commercial title insurance and closing and settlement services to specialized offerings for the mortgage and real estate industries, we offer the comprehensive service, deep expertise and solutions our customers need for any real estate transaction. More information can be found at https://www.stewart.com, subscribe to the Stewart blog at https://blog.stewart.com or follow Stewart on Twitter® @stewarttitleco.

Cautionary statement regarding forward-looking statements. Certain statements in this earnings release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, as amended. Such forward-looking statements relate to future, not past, events and often address our expected future business and financial performance. These statements often contain words such as "may," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "believe," "seek," "will," "foresee" or other similar words. Forward-looking statements by their nature are subject to various risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to be materially different than those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, among other things, the volatility of economic conditions; adverse changes in the level of real estate activity; changes in mortgage interest rates, existing and new home sales, and availability of mortgage financing; our ability to respond to and implement technology changes, including the completion of the implementation of our enterprise systems; the impact of unanticipated title losses or the need to strengthen our policy loss reserves; any effect of title losses on our cash flows and financial condition; the ability to attract and retain highly productive sales associates; the impact of vetting our agency operations for quality and profitability; independent agency remittance rates; changes to the participants in the secondary mortgage market and the rate of refinancing that affects the demand for title insurance products; regulatory non-compliance, fraud or defalcations by our title insurance agencies or employees; our ability to timely and cost-effectively respond to significant industry changes and introduce new products and services; the outcome of pending litigation; the impact of changes in governmental and insurance regulations, including any future reductions in the pricing of title insurance products and services; our dependence on our operating subsidiaries as a source of cash flow; our ability to access the equity and debt financing markets when and if needed; our ability to grow our international operations; seasonality and weather; and our ability to respond to the actions of our competitors. These risks and uncertainties, as well as others, are discussed in more detail in our documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2021, and if applicable, as supplemented by any risk factors contained in our Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, and our Current Reports on Form 8-K filed subsequently. All forward-looking statements included in this earnings release are expressly qualified in their entirety by such cautionary statements. We expressly disclaim any obligation to update, amend or clarify any forward-looking statements contained in this earnings release to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date hereof, except as may be required by applicable law.

ST-IR

Appendix A
Non-GAAP Adjustments

Management uses a variety of financial and operational measurements other than its financial statements prepared in accordance with United States Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) to analyze its performance. These include: (1) adjusted revenues, which are reported revenues adjusted for net realized and unrealized gains and losses, and other adjustments (sold real estate brokerage company), and (2) adjusted pretax income and adjusted net income, which are reported pretax income and reported net income after earnings from noncontrolling interests, respectively, adjusted for net realized and unrealized gains and losses, office closure, severance and regulatory settlement and litigation expenses, and other adjustments. Adjusted diluted earnings per share (adjusted diluted EPS) is calculated using adjusted net income divided by the diluted average weighted outstanding shares. In addition to these adjustments, acquired intangible asset amortization and other expenses are excluded in the calculation of adjusted pretax income for the title and real estate solutions segments. Management views these measures as important performance measures of core profitability for its operations and as key components of its internal financial reporting. Management believes investors benefit from having access to the same financial measures that management uses.

Below are reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measurements used by management to the most directly comparable GAAP measures for the quarter and year ended December 31, 2022 and 2021 (dollars in millions, except share and per share amounts, and amounts may not add as presented due to rounding).

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SOURCE Stewart Information Services Corporation