MGIC Investment Corporation

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the MGIC Investment Corporation first quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. At the end of today's presentation, we'll have a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star 11 on your telephone. You will then hear an automated message advising your hand is raised. To withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. I will now turn the conference call over to Diana Higgins, head of investor relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Kelly. Good morning, and welcome, everyone. Thank you for your interest in MGIC. Joining me on the call today to discuss our results for the first quarter are Tim Mackey, Chief Executive Officer, and Nathan Colson, Chief Financial Officer and Chief Risk Officer. Our press release, which contains MGIC's first quarter financial results, was issued yesterday and is available on our website at mtg.mgic.com under Newsroom, includes additional information about our quarterly results that we will refer to during the call today. It also includes a reconciliation of non-GAAP financial measures to their most comparable GAAP measures. In addition, we posted on our website a quarterly supplement that contains information pertaining to our primary risk and force and other information you may find valuable. As a reminder, from time to time, we may post information about our underwriting guidelines and other presentations or corrections to past presentations on our website. Before getting started today, I want to remind everyone that during the course of this call, we may make comments about our expectations of the future. Actual results could differ materially from those contained in these forward-looking statements. Our 8K and 10Q filed yesterday includes additional information about the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed on the call today. If we make any forward-looking statements, we are not undertaking an obligation to update those statements in the future in light of subsequent development. No one should rely on the fact that such guidance or forward-looking statements are current at any time other than the time of this call or the issuance of our 8K or 10Q. With that, I now have the pleasure to turn the call over to Tim.

Thanks, Diane, and good morning, everyone. I'm pleased to report a strong start to 2026 as we continue to execute our business strategies while maintaining the momentum we have built over the past several years. Our performance demonstrates the strength of our business model, disciplined market approach, and longstanding commitment to meeting the evolving needs of our customers in the broader market, a commitment we have maintained since 1957. For the first quarter, we generated net income of $165 million, delivering an annualized return on equity of 13%. Our solid operating performance, combined with the strength of our balance sheet, drove book value per share to $23.63, an increase of 10% year over year. Turning to NIW, we wrote $14 billion of new insurance in the first quarter, an increase of 41% from last year, and our largest first quarter of NIW since 2022. The increase was driven by higher refinance activity, as well as what we expect was a modestly larger purchase market. Insurance and force at the end of the first quarter stood at approximately $303 billion, relatively flat quarter over quarter, and up 3% from a year ago, with annual persistency ending the quarter at 84%, down from 85% last quarter. Both insurance and force and annual persistency are in line with our expectations entering the year. Overall, we continue to expect our insurance and force to remain relatively flat in 2026. If mortgage rates were to decline more than currently predicted, we'd expect the size of the MI market to benefit from increased refinance activity, although the growth in insurance and force would be offset by lower persistency, which is consistent with what happened in the first quarter to some degree. We continue to be pleased with the overall credit quality and performance of our well-balanced portfolio. Our underwriting standards remain strong, and to date, we have not seen a material change in the credit performance of our portfolio. Early payment defaults remain low, which we believe is a positive indicator of near-term credit trends. Our capital structure remains robust, with $6 billion of balance sheet capital and a well-established reinsurance program with a large panel of highly rated reinsurers that continues to be a core component of our risk and capital management strategy. These reinsurance agreements reduce loss, volatility, and stress scenarios while providing capital diversification and flexibility at attractive costs. At the end of the first quarter, our reinsurance program reduced our PMIR's required assets by $3.1 billion, or approximately 52%. Our capital management approach remains unchanged. We prioritize prudent insurance-enforced growth over capital return. Market conditions have constrained insurance-enforced growth in recent years, and against that backdrop, our capital return activity reflects our robust position, continued strong credit performance and financial results, and share price levels that we believe are attractive to generate long-term value for our shareholders. Consistent with our commitment to discipline capital allocation and long-term shareholder value, last week the Board authorized an additional $750 million share repurchase program. We actively monitor capital levels of both MGIC and the holding company, carefully balancing the amount of capital we return to shareholders with what we retain to preserve financial strength and resilience across a range of macroeconomic environments. In doing so, we consider both current conditions and expected future operating environments while continually evaluating the most effective ways to allocate capital to drive long-term shareholder value, an approach that served our shareholders well. Consistent with this approach, earlier this week, MGIC paid a $400 million dividend to the holding company, enhancing holding company liquidity and overall financial flexibility. With that, let me turn it over to Nathan to provide more details on our financial results and capital management activities for the first quarter.