Stewart Information Services Corporation anticipates full-year revenue growth of about 20% and earnings growth of about 30%, even as it now expects existing home sales growth to top around 2% for the year, down from a prior forecast of 3% to 5%. CEO Frederick Eppinger said the company made additional investments of around $8 million in the second quarter to boost organic growth initiatives in three of its title businesses, which slowed quarterly earnings growth to 13%. Second-quarter total revenues increased $177 million or 25%, while net income improved $5 million or 17%, with diluted earnings per share of $1.21 compared to $1.13 a year earlier. The company is working on transactions expected to close in the next 60 to 120 days, funded by excess capital, and sees year-over-year margin improvement of about 0.5 percentage points. The Real Estate Solutions segment saw revenues rise 75% and adjusted pretax income more than double to $27 million, while Title segment pretax income was comparable to last year as operating expenses rose 17%.
Stewart Information Services CorpCompany expects full-year revenue up 20% and earnings up 30%, with Q2 revenue up 25% and EPS up from $1.13 to $1.21.