Stewart Information Services Corporation (STC) operates as a key provider of title insurance and related services essential for real estate transactions, delivered ...
Stewart Information Services Corporation is a financial-services and real estate infrastructure company founded in Galveston, Texas, in 1893 by Maco Stewart. Its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol STC. Headquartered at 1360 Post Oak Boulevard in Houston, Texas, Stewart has developed from a regional ...Stewart Information Services Corporation is a financial-services and real estate infrastructure company founded in Galveston, Texas, in 1893 by Maco Stewart. Its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol STC. Headquartered at 1360 Post Oak Boulevard in Houston, Texas, Stewart has developed from a regional title insurer into an international provider of title insurance, settlement, underwriting, property information, and mortgage-support services. Its operations extend across the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other markets, with products distributed through company-owned offices, independent agents, and affiliated businesses.
The company primarily operates through two broad areas: Title and Ancillary Services and Corporate. The Title business supports real estate transactions by researching ownership records, identifying liens and encumbrances, examining property titles, coordinating escrow and closing activities, and issuing title insurance. Title insurance protects property buyers and mortgage lenders against covered losses arising from defects in historical ownership records. Stewart also offers related personal and property insurance, exchange services for tax-deferred real estate transactions, and technology-enabled customer and transaction-management tools.
Its ancillary activities support the mortgage and broader real estate ecosystem. These services include appraisal management, property search and valuation analysis, credit and real estate data, remote and virtual notarization, digital closing capabilities, and other workflow services used by lenders, servicers, brokers, investors, and settlement professionals. The company’s service costs are generally transaction-based and depend on property value, jurisdiction, policy type, underwriting risk, search complexity, closing requirements, and mortgage activity. Unlike a manufacturing business, Stewart does not have a conventional bill-of-materials structure; its principal inputs are skilled labor, title and property databases, technology platforms, office infrastructure, legal and compliance resources, insurance capacity, and distribution relationships.
The business is sensitive to housing turnover, mortgage originations, refinancing activity, commercial real estate conditions, interest rates, home prices, and regional transaction volumes. Its title-insurance model can generate substantial gross margins because premiums and service fees are supported by information, underwriting, and professional processes rather than physical products, although claims risk, personnel expenses, technology investment, agent commissions, and regulatory requirements affect profitability. The supplied trailing-twelve-month data indicates approximately $2.1 billion of market capitalization, a gross margin of about 80.5%, an operating margin near 6.1%, a net margin near 4.1%, return on equity of approximately 8.4%, and a dividend yield near 3.1%. These figures can change with market prices and future reporting periods.
Frederick H. Eppinger Jr. serves as chief executive officer. Stewart’s strategic objectives generally include strengthening its title-insurance underwriting franchise, expanding digital and automated closing capabilities, improving mortgage and property-data services, supporting independent agents, managing claims and operating costs, and maintaining reliable service through changing real estate cycles. Key risks include housing-market contraction, reduced transaction volumes, title claims, regulatory changes, cyber and data-security incidents, competitive pressure, integration challenges, and fluctuations in interest rates.
YoYYoY means Year-over-Year. It compares the latest annual value with the previous annual value to show long-term trend strength.
QoQQoQ means Quarter-over-Quarter. It compares the latest quarter with the immediately previous quarter to show short-term momentum changes.
RevenueThe total money that came through the front door from selling things, before paying a single bill. Think of it as the grand total of every credit card swipe from customers. (YoY compares this year to last year's performance, while QoQ compares the current three months to the previous three).
$2.9B
+17.3%
+15.1%
Net IncomeThe absolute bottom line. If the company paid every single supplier, employee, banker, and tax collector, this is the actual money left in their pocket at the end of the day.
$115.6M
+57.6%
+119.4%
Gross MarginThe basic markup. If they sell a $100 pair of sneakers, this percentage tells you how much of that price tag is profit right after paying for the rubber and shoelaces, but before paying for things like store rent or TV commercials.
+87.7%
-9.4%
+56.6%
Operating MarginThe 'day job' efficiency score. Out of every dollar a customer spends, this shows how many cents the company keeps after making the product AND paying for all the everyday corporate overhead (like salaries, marketing, and keeping the lights on).
+5.7%
+23.4%
+53.2%
Net MarginThe final take-home percentage. When you strip away every conceivable cost, tax, and interest payment, this is the exact number of cents the company truly gets to keep from every dollar in sales.
+4.0%
+34.4%
+90.6%
Free Cash FlowThe holy grail of corporate cash. It's the spendable, physical money left over after the business pays for its daily operations AND buys the big, expensive upgrades (like new factories or servers) it needs to survive. This is the 'free' money they can use to pay dividends or buy back stock.
$132.3M
+39.0%
+267.4%
FCF MarginThe ultimate cash conversion rate. It shows how good the company is at turning regular sales directly into cold, hard, spendable cash. A high percentage means the business is an absolute cash-printing machine.
+4.5%
+18.5%
+245.5%
Debt / EquityThe financial risk gauge. It compares how much of the company's empire was built using borrowed money (loans) versus the owners' own money (shareholders). A high number means they are heavily leveraged and playing a riskier game; a low number means they are playing it safe.
46.8%
+16.3%
-1.5%
Current RatioThe 12-month survival check. It simply compares the cash they have right now (plus things they can quickly turn into cash) against the immediate bills they absolutely must pay this year. A score above 1 means they have enough in the wallet to cover the upcoming bills without panicking.
0.72x
-2.5%
-27.5%
Total AssetsThe absolute size of the company's empire. It bundles together absolutely everything of value they own—from the cash in the register and the inventory in the warehouse, to the software patents in the vault and the factories on the ground.
Operator : Thank you for joining the Stewart Information Services second quarter 2026 earnings call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have an opportunity to ask a question during the question and answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. Please note today's call is being recorded. Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, please press star zero. It is now my pleasure to turn today's conference over to Kat Bass, Director of Investor Relations. Please go ahead.
Kat Bass : Thank you for joining us today for Stewart's second quarter 2026 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 Hisey. 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 the 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.
Fred Eppinger : Thank you for joining us today for Stewart's second quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Yesterday we released the financial results for the second quarter. I will kick off today's call with an overview of our performance, followed by our outlook on the housing market. I will cover our results and strategic direction by business. After my remarks, I'll turn it over to David for additional commentary on the results. I am very pleased with the second quarter results. We sustained our growth momentum in each of our business lines and strengthened our future earnings outlook by significantly investing in some additional business opportunities. Our results for the first half of the year reflects the efforts we have made to grow the company and improve earnings. Our year-to-date results demonstrated our success at growing both top and bottom lines. Year-to-date, we have grown revenues by 26% grew adjusted pre-tax income by 45%, all while the housing market remains at multi-decade lows. Our momentum continued in the second quarter as we saw very strong revenue growth of over 24%. Earnings growth for the quarter was 13%, with slower growth driven by a decision to make some significant additional investments in individuals and teams to boost our organic growth initiatives in three of our title businesses. In the quarter, we made additional investments in individuals and teams of around $8 million to capture these targeted business opportunities. I'm excited about these opportunities and believe we should see the full impact of these hires over the …
