First Quarter Earnings Results

Fidelity Reports First-quarter 2026 Results;  First American Reports First Quarter 2026 Results; Old Republic Reports First-quarter 2026 Earnings; Stewart Reports Q1 2026 Results

• Fidelity Reports First-quarter 2026 Results
  Fidelity National Financial (FNF) reported its title insurance segment generated $211 million in pretax earnings during the first quarter of 2026. This was up from $171 million during the same period a year ago.
  
  “This performance reflects the strength of our direct commercial business, continued momentum in refinance with orders opened up more than 50% over the prior year, and our disciplined approach to expense management driving strong incremental margins,” said Mike Nolan, FNF’s chief executive officer. “These results demonstrate that our scale, technology investments and operating model continue to support the earnings power of our business even in the current historically low transactional environment."
  
  During the latest quarter, FNF’s direct operations opened 389,000 orders and closed 234,000 orders. This compared to 343,000 direct orders opened and 201,000 closed during the first quarter of 2025.
  
  FNF reported purchase orders opened increased 2% on a daily basis and purchase orders closed decreased 1% on a daily basis compared with the first quarter of 2025. Meanwhile, refinance orders opened increased 52% on a daily basis and refinance orders closed increased 75% on a daily basis over the first quarter of 2025. In addition, FNF’s commercial orders opened increased 5% and commercial orders closed increased 8% over the first quarter of 2025. The company’s total fee per file was $3,655 for the first quarter, a 3% decrease from the first quarter of 2025.
  
  FNF paid $57 million in title claims during the first quarter of 2026. This is down from $56 million in claims paid during the same period a year ago.
  
  During the company’s earnings call, Nolan spent time discussing FNF’s investments in technology and AI.
  
  “Fidelity National Financial and the title industry hold a unique position in real estate transactions,” Nolan said. “We do not sit next to the real estate transaction; we sit inside the transactions, orchestrating complex multi-party settlements, safeguarding the movement of funds, and mitigating fraud in every transaction. By embedding AI tools into these workflows, we can drive significant value by enhancing efficiency and our customers' experience, reducing risk and strengthening fraud prevention across real estate transactions.”
  
  Nolan explained that the gains come from having highly curated, deep sets of transactional data to augment AI. This data “can’t be replicated by simply digitizing public records regardless of how sophisticated technology becomes,” he added.
  
  “Importantly, we are focused on implementing AI responsibly and compliantly with appropriate governance, human oversight and risk and regulatory controls in place,” Nolan said. “We have deliberately avoided a concentrated bet on any single model or platform. Instead, we are deploying AI directly with the data and workflows each team already owns inside or alongside the technology they already use. While we already have a highly automated process for searching county records, we believe AI will have a meaningful benefit to other significant areas of real estate transactions as we integrate AI capabilities end-to-end throughout the entire Title and settlement process.”
  
  
• First American Reports First-quarter 2026 Results
  
  First American Financial Corp. reported its title insurance and services segment generated $167.0 million in pretax income during the first quarter of 2026. This compared to $106.8 million in pretax income during the first quarter of 2026.
  
  "We delivered a strong first quarter, with adjusted earnings per share up 58 percent compared to the prior year," said Mark Seaton, chief executive officer at First American Financial. "Our results were driven by our commercial business, which achieved record first-quarter revenue. In addition, investment income in our title segment grew 12 percent, despite a decline in the federal funds rate, in part due to continued success in capturing additional deposit sources at our bank.”
  
  First American’s direct operations opened 182,900 orders and closed 119,900 orders during Q1 2026. This compared to 168,900 direct orders opened and 110,300 direct orders closed during Q1, 2025.
  
  First American’s average revenue per direct title order rose to $4,229, primarily due to an increase in the average revenue per order for commercial transactions. This was partially offset by a shift in the mix from higher premium purchase transactions to lower premium refinance transactions, according to First American. During the latest quarter, First American’s commercial revenues increased 48% to $271 million compared with the same period a year ago.
  
  The company paid $41.7 million in title claims during the latest quarter. This is up from $38.4 million in paid title claims during the first quarter of 2025.
  
  "Beyond our financial results, we are committed to deploying AI solutions across the company to amplify the talents of our team, better serve our customers and strengthen our capabilities,” Seaton said. “Our combination of unique data assets, deep domain expertise and innovative technology provides us with a competitive advantage as AI adoption accelerates. We are energized by the opportunities ahead and will continue to invest in our people, processes and products as we work to extend our leadership position in the industry.".
  
  
• Old Republic Reports First-quarter 2026 Earnings
  
  Old Republic International Corp. reported its title insurance segment generated $16.7 million in pretax income during the first quarter of 2026. This is up from $4.3 million in pretax income during the same period a year ago.
  
  “The start of the 2026 home-buying season was marked by higher inventory levels, lower interest rates and moderating price growth compared to 2025,” said Carolyn Jean Monroe, president and chief executive officer of Old Republic National Title Insurance Group. “While interest rates spiked during the last month of the quarter due to uncertainty and inflation concerns, they did ease slightly in April.
  
  Title Insurance net premiums and fees earned increased 12% for the quarter, the company reported. Both agency and directly produced premiums experienced solid growth and strong commercial business production. Commercial premiums represented 27% of net premiums earned compared to 24% in the first quarter of last year. Title, escrow and other fees were up slightly, as the decrease in fees from the sale of certain technology platforms in the first quarter 2025 was offset by growth in escrow and closing service fees, according to Old Republic.
  
  Old Republic reported loss and loss adjustment expense of $17.4 million during the latest quarter. This is up from $16.0 million during the first quarter of 2025.
  
  “We are committed to equipping our agents with the latest fraud prevention tools and other technological solutions to help them succeed in all market conditions,” Monroe said. “Internally, we are busy continuing to execute on the rollout of our new operating platform across the title operations. We are also progressing with ongoing enhancements to our commercial structure and enhancing our ability to service the elevated level of commercial transactions taking place in the market.”
  
  
• Stewart Reports Q1 2026 Results
  
  Stewart Information Services Corp. reported its title insurance segment generated pretax income of $25 million during the first quarter of 2026. This is up from $11.8 million in pretax income during the same period in 2024.
  
  "In the first quarter, each of our businesses showed strong revenue growth and improved earnings as we executed on our strategic priorities,” said Stewart CEO Fred Eppinger. “Though first quarter existing home sales were muted, our direct operations, agency services and national commercial services benefited from strong commercial growth.”
  
  Stewart reported its domestic commercial revenues increased $24.6 million in the first quarter 2026, driven by higher commercial transaction size and volume, primarily across energy, industrial, site development, data center and retail asset classes. Domestic non-commercial revenues increased $11.2 million in the first quarter 2026, primarily due to higher closed transaction volumes, driven mainly by increased refinancing activity. 
  
  During the first quarter, Stewart opened 84,708 direct title orders and closed 48,627 direct title orders. This compared to 78,943 direct title orders opened and 45,673 direct title orders closed during the first quarter of 2025.
  
  The company reported $18.4 million in title losses and related claims during Q1 of 2026. This is up slightly from $17.7 million in title losses and related claims during the same period a year ago.
  
  “While we anticipate some growth in the housing market, we foresee the potential for growth to be a bit more muted this year given the broader macro and geopolitical conditions and where we have seen interest rates move as a result,” Eppinger said. “We believe commercial, on the other hand, will remain more resilient and can continue to have solid growth.