First American Financial Reports Third Quarter 2017 Results

First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF), a leading global provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions, today announced financial results for the third quarter ended Sept. 30, 2017.

Download the complete press release as a PDF

Current Quarter Highlights

• Pension termination completed resulting in a $152.4 million expense, or 89 cents per diluted share
• Total revenue of $1.5 billion, up 1 percent compared with last year
• Title Insurance and Services segment pretax margin of 13.0 percent
• Purchase revenues up 10 percent compared with last year
  • Average revenue per order up 7 percent
  • Closed orders per day up 5 percent
• Commercial revenues of $175.5 million, up 6 percent compared with last year
• Title Insurance and Services segment loss provision rate of 4.0 percent
• Specialty Insurance segment total revenues up 8 percent, with a pretax margin of 5.2 percent
• Debt-to-capital ratio of 18.2 percent as of Sept. 30, 2017
• Title-related acquisitions closed totaling $87.3 million
• Cash flow from operations of $220.9 million

Total revenue for the third quarter of 2017 was $1.5 billion, an increase of 1 percent relative to the third quarter of 2016. Net income in the current quarter was $21.4 million, or 19 cents per diluted share, compared with net income of $107.3 million, or 96 cents per diluted share, in the third quarter of 2016. The current quarter results include an expense of $152.4 million, or 89 cents per diluted share, for the completion of the company's pension plan termination. Net realized investment losses in the current quarter were $7.0 million, or 4 cents per diluted share, compared with net realized gains of $9.5 million, or 6 cents per diluted share, in the third quarter of last year. In addition, this quarter's effective tax rate of negative 17.9 percent includes a benefit of $8.1 million, or 7 cents per diluted share, primarily related to certain settlements with taxing authorities and tax benefits recorded in connection with the termination of the pension plan.

"In the third quarter, our company continued to deliver strong operating results," said Dennis J. Gilmore, chief executive officer at First American Financial Corporation. "We are seeing sustained growth in our purchase business, with revenues up 10 percent this quarter, and the positive momentum in our commercial business continued, with revenues up 6 percent from last year. The refinance market, while down sharply from last year, is currently stable and we have adjusted our cost structure to match the lower order volumes. During the quarter, we also saw additional benefit from growth in investment income driven by the increase in short-term interest rates.

"Noteworthy acquisitions this quarter included the purchase of a leading title agency in Nevada and the buyout of our majority joint venture partner in a title information company.

"The recent hurricanes and wildfires resulted in extreme hardships for many people, including a number of First American's employees and customers. While our immediate focus was on helping our impacted employees and providing them with the resources they needed, I'm proud of how hard our people worked to get our operations back up and running, allowing us to quickly resume service to our customers. We ultimately expect the company's financial results will not be significantly impacted.

"As we enter the fourth quarter, we are optimistic given the expected seasonal strength in our commercial business and the continued growth of the purchase market."

Total revenues for the Title Insurance and Services segment during the third quarter were $1.4 billion, essentially flat compared with the same quarter of 2016. Direct premiums and escrow fees were down 1 percent compared with the third quarter of 2016, driven by a 20 percent decline in the number of direct title orders closed that was largely offset by a 24 percent increase in the average revenue per direct title order. The growth in the average revenue per direct title order to $2,298 was primarily attributable to the shift in the order mix to higher-premium residential purchase and commercial transactions, higher average revenue per order from commercial transactions, and higher residential real estate values. Agent premiums were up 1 percent in the current quarter compared with last year, largely reflecting the normal reporting lag of approximately one quarter.

Information and other revenues were $199.3 million this quarter, an increase of $11.3 million, or 6 percent, compared with the same quarter of last year. This increase was driven by a $23.6 million impact from recent acquisitions, partially offset by lower revenues from the company's default and mortgage-related information products, which largely resulted from the decline in overall market activity.

Investment income was $37.9 million in the third quarter, up $8.9 million, or 31 percent, primarily due to the increase in short-term interest rates that drove higher interest income in our tax-deferred property exchange business and our floating rate mortgage-backed securities portfolio. In addition, investment income benefited from an increase in average invested balances in our debt securities portfolio. Net realized investment losses totaled $7.2 million in the current quarter, compared with gains of $8.4 million in the third quarter of 2016.

Personnel costs were $421.8 million in the third quarter, an increase of $12.5 million, or 3 percent, compared with the same quarter of 2016. The increase was driven by a $17.4 million impact from recent acquisitions and $9.0 million in out-of-period personnel expenses, partially offset by $13.9 million in lower costs across a number of categories, including temporary labor costs and overtime.

Other operating expenses were $196.5 million in the third quarter, down $1.7 million, or 1 percent, compared with the third quarter of 2016. An increase of $10.5 million from recent acquisitions was more than offset by $12.2 million in expense reductions, primarily due to lower production-related expense from the decline in order volume and lower software, legal and bad debt expense compared with last year.

The provision for policy losses and other claims was $46.7 million in the third quarter, or 4.0 percent of title premiums and escrow fees, compared with a 5.5 percent loss provision rate in the third quarter of 2016. The current quarter rate reflects an ultimate loss rate of 4.0 percent for the current policy year and no change in the loss reserve estimates for prior policy years.

Depreciation and amortization expense was $34.4 million in the third quarter, an increase of $11.4 million, or 49 percent, compared with the same period last year. The increase was primarily attributable to a $4.7 million title plant write-off and higher amortization expense associated with internally developed technology and purchased software licenses.

Pretax income for the Title Insurance and Services segment was $181.2 million in the third quarter, compared with $188.7 million in the third quarter of 2016. Pretax margin was 13.0 percent in the current quarter, including a 40 basis point margin impact from net realized investment losses, compared with 13.5 percent last year, which included a 50 basis point margin impact for net realized gains.

Total revenues for the Specialty Insurance segment were $118.5 million in the third quarter of 2017, an increase of 8 percent compared with the third quarter of 2016. The increase in revenues was driven by higher premiums earned in the home warranty business line. The loss ratio in the home warranty business declined significantly this quarter compared with last year due to lower claim frequency and severity. The decrease in claim severity was primarily due to operational improvements in our claims management processes. In addition, both claim severity and frequency benefited, to some extent, from favorable weather conditions as compared with last year. Our property and casualty business experienced high claim losses in the quarter due to higher claim severity and frequency. However, the overall loss ratio for the segment still declined to 65.2 percent compared with 69.0 percent last year. As a result, the segment's pretax margin in the current quarter was 5.2 percent, compared with 1.6 percent in the third quarter of last year.

Teleconference/Webcast

First American's third quarter 2017 results will be discussed in more detail on Thursday, Oct. 26, 2017, at 11 a.m. EDT, via teleconference. The toll-free dial-in number is 877-407-8293. Callers from outside the United States may dial +1-201-689-8349.

The live audio webcast of the call will be available on First American's website at www.firstam.com/investor. An audio replay of the conference call will be available through Nov. 9, 2017, by dialing 201-612-7415 and using the conference ID 13672053. An audio archive of the call will also be available on First American's investor website.

About First American

First American Financial Corporation (NYSE: FAF) is a leading provider of title insurance, settlement services and risk solutions for real estate transactions that traces its heritage back to 1889. First American also provides title plant management services; title and other real property records and images; valuation products and services; home warranty products; property and casualty insurance; and banking, trust and investment advisory services. With total revenue of $5.6 billion in 2016, the company offers its products and services directly and through its agents throughout the United States and abroad. In 2016 and again in 2017, First American was named to the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For^® list. More information about the company can be found at www.firstam.com.

Website Disclosure

First American posts information of interest to investors at www.firstam.com/investor. This includes opened and closed title insurance order counts for its U.S. direct title insurance operations, which are posted approximately 10 to 12 days after the end of each month.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements made in this press release and the related management commentary contain, and responses to investor questions may contain, forward-looking statements within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. These forward-looking statements can be identified by the fact that they do not relate strictly to historical or current facts and may contain the words "believe," "anticipate," "expect," "intend," "plan," "predict," "estimate," "project," "will be," "will continue," "will likely result," or other similar words and phrases or future or conditional verbs such as "will," "may," "might," "should," "would," or "could." These forward-looking statements include, without limitation, statements regarding future operations, performance, financial condition, prospects, plans and strategies. These forward-looking statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that may prove to be incorrect. Risks and uncertainties exist that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in these forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause the anticipated results to differ from those described in the forward-looking statements include, without limitation: interest rate fluctuations; changes in the performance of the real estate markets; volatility in the capital markets; unfavorable economic conditions; impairments in the company's goodwill or other intangible assets; failures at financial institutions where the company deposits funds; changes in applicable laws and government regulations; heightened scrutiny by legislators and regulators of the company's title insurance and services segment and certain other of the company's businesses; use of social media by the company and other parties; regulation of title insurance rates; limitations on access to public records and other data; changes in relationships with large mortgage lenders and government-sponsored enterprises; changes in measures of the strength of the company's title insurance underwriters, including ratings and statutory capital and surplus; losses in the company's investment portfolio; material variance between actual and expected claims experience; defalcations, increased claims or other costs and expenses attributable to the company's use of title agents; any inadequacy in the company's risk management framework; systems damage, failures, interruptions and intrusions or unauthorized data disclosures; errors and fraud involving the transfer of funds; the company's use of a global workforce; inability of the company's subsidiaries to pay dividends or repay funds; inability to realize the benefits of, and challenges arising from, the company's acquisition strategy; and other factors described in the company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2017, as filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The forward-looking statements speak only as of the date they are made. The company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This news release and related management commentary contain certain financial measures that are not presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles (GAAP), including personnel and other operating expense ratios, and success ratios. The company is presenting these non-GAAP financial measures because they provide the company's management and investors with additional insight into the operational efficiency and performance of the company relative to earlier periods and relative to the company's competitors. The company does not intend for these non-GAAP financial measures to be a substitute for any GAAP financial information. In this news release, these non-GAAP financial measures have been presented with, and reconciled to, the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures. Investors should use these non-GAAP financial measures only in conjunction with the comparable GAAP financial measures.