Stewart Information Services Corporation

Hello, and thank you for joining the Stuart Information Services third quarter 2025 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you'll have the opportunity to ask questions during the question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. Please note today's call is being recorded. Lastly, should you require operator assistance, please press star zero. It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Kat Bass, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead, ma'am.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for Stewart's third quarter 2025 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 Heise. 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.

Thank you for joining us today for the third quarter earnings conference call. Yesterday we released the financial results for the quarter, which David will review with you shortly. I'd like to start today's call with a discussion about perspective on housing market conditions, followed by a review of our third quarter results and strategic progress by business. I am proud of our third quarter results. Our 19% revenue growth and 40% earnings growth reflect the efforts we have made to continue to grow the company even while facing prolonged headwinds from the historically low housing market we continue to be in. There continues to be both a blend of positive and negative economic headlines related to housing. In the third quarter, we experienced some rate relief exiting September with the mortgage rates around 6.35. While there is some softening of rates in the third quarter, we did not see rates quite as low as the quick dip we experienced in September of last year. where rates hovered momentarily right around 6% and caused a flurry in purchase and refinance activity to close out 2024. I am more confident in the market's ability to improve over the next 12 months this year than I was last year at this time. The housing market continues to become a bit friendlier for buyers as inventory has been growing. Builders continue to offer incentives and an increase in indicating the cooling of house price appreciation. We have also seen price improvement in more of the MSAs. That said, home prices still remain a hardship for many buyers as the median sales price of existing homes sold is still increasing year over year, though at a lesser rate than we've experienced for most of 24. So far this year, existing home sales are hovering right around 4 million annual units. As many buyers continue to sit on the sidelines, awaiting less volatility in the macro market conditions and in anticipation of future rate cuts into the next year. September existing home sales data will be published later this morning. However, we expect around a 1% to 2% increase in existing home sales relative to the third quarter of 24 this quarter. Looking ahead, we believe the housing market will continue to gradually improve over the coming year, and 26 will be the beginning of a transition back towards a more normal existing home sales environment, which we characterize as 5 million existing homes sold. From a commercial market perspective, we have benefited from and capitalized on the recovery seen in the commercial real estate markets across various asset classes. We expect this recovery to continue into 26 and beyond. Given these market headwinds and volatility, we are proud of the results that we have delivered in the third quarter as they reflect our momentum In the third quarter, as I said, we grew total revenues by 19% and adjusted earnings when compared to the same period last year. Our direct operations unit grew 8% in the third quarter relative to the same period last year. We see this as solid progress given that this business unit most immediately feels the effects of challenge residential housing market. Our direct operations leadership remains focused on the charge and growth share and target MSAs micro-markets, both organically and inorganically. They are also focused on picking up share in small commercial transactions that run through this business unit, and we are seeing real progress on that initiative, with commercial growing 18% in direct this quarter. We continue to expect a significant portion of our future growth in this business to come from targeted acquisitions, and we maintain a warm pipeline of targets that will develop as the market signals to return to more normal market levels. Our national commercial services business delivered another solid quarter of growth. Success in this group is largely due to our increased penetration in the number of geographic markets and asset classes. We have brought on best-in-class talent and will continue to invest in talent in this space to grow our share. Thoughtful investment in our talent will allow us to expand our network and deepen our capabilities in more geographies and asset classes in order to leverage the distinctive underwriting capability we currently have. We grew domestic commercial revenues by 17% in the quarter, and through the third quarter, we have grown domestic commercial revenues by 33%. I'm proud of our performance here, as it really represents the momentum we have built for ourselves on the commercial front. The energy asset class continues to be a point of strength. Data centers, hospitality, and self-storage were also areas of growth for us in the quarter. We are focused on growing all asset classes and target geographies to expand our overall footprint. Our agency services business had another strong quarter, with revenues up 28% year-over-year in the third quarter. This amount of growth is exciting for us when considering the overall housing market is near flat for the year. We are on a mission to grow this business through shared gains in attractive states, onboarding new agents, and wall of share expansion with existing agents. While we see growth across all states, there are 15 states that we are targeting for share shift and growth. We are seeing sustained growth year-to-date in agencies in several of our target states, most notably Florida, Texas, and New York. Our commercial initiatives with agents has also been a big part of our success, and we continue to build out momentum that we have made in recent years to our target agents to differentiate our services and better our offerings for agent partners. Our real estate solutions business delivered another strong quarter of results as well, generating revenue of 21% higher than the third quarter of 24%. The increase was led by our credit information business. Our margins again improved sequentially and are now in the low teens range, which we would consider our normal range. We are focused on growing this business line by gaining share with top lenders and cross-selling our products as we leverage our improved portfolio of services. We expect continued progress in this business line as the market improves. Moving to our international operations, we are focused there on broadening our geographic presence within Canada and increasing our commercial penetration. In the third quarter of 25, we grew revenue by 21% versus 24 due to non-commercial growth of 12% and outsized commercial growth due to a handful of larger transactions. We believe we can build on our strong position in these markets and continue to grow shares. Overall, we remain dedicated to strengthening our company through thoughtful geographic, customer, and channel expansion in each business to set the company up for continued long-term success. I am pleased to share that in September, we announced an increase in our annual dividend from $2 per share to $2.10 per share. This is the fifth year in a row we have increased our dividend to shareholders. We continue to invest in ourselves and our shareholders as we pursue smart growth for each of our business lines. Thank you to our customers and agent partners for your continued trust. We are committed to doing our best to serve you with excellence. And I'd like to close by saying thank you to our employees for their dedication, loyalty, and drive. It has been a privilege this year to visit so many of our offices. This year, and see and experience the energy that you've all shared with me, it is contagious. We have never had a better talent as we do today. I'm so proud of how far we've come in our journey to become a destination for industry-leading talent. Earlier this year, we were recognized as a top workplace by USA Today. And in the third quarter, we were named by Forbes' list of American Best Employers for Company Culture. We also ranked in the Business Services category by Forbes of America as the Best Employer for Women in 2025. I want to thank you all for what you're doing to build upon the company's legacy and set up the company for enduring success. David, I will now turn it over to you to provide the update on our results.