Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE:STC) Q3 2023 Earnings Call Transcript

We’ve also done the same thing. We picked the markets that we were interested in. We’ve made some investments as well there. The other thing that’s interesting in commercial, the market is obviously weigh down, but one of our real strengths is energy and energy is up, right? So if you look at — energy was probably 13% of our business last year, probably 25% of our business now. So we have a benefit of having a resilient mix because of our areas of expertise. But we’ve also invested quite a bit in commercial. So again, all of these businesses, my view is over the long haul, we’re set up to gain share. And as the market comes back, I think that’s actually going to be more robust because again, in down markets, people are a little bit reluctant to change allegiances and so I think it’s going to only get better if we can stay focused and make sure we keep enhancing kind of our value proposition.

But I’m happy with the effort of the team. It’s a tough thing. We’re balancing really thoughtful expense management but also trying to be targeted in our investments to make sure we keep improving. And it’s showing some progress, which is good.

Soham Bhonsle: Yes. No, that’s great to hear. And just one more, I guess, on commercial. I’m wondering on the fee per file side, it was stronger than what your peer reported this morning. So — just can you just talk about the drivers? Is it the energy piece that you’re talking about? And then how do you sort of see the fourth quarter development here?

Frederick Eppinger: Yes. So there’s a caution. For us, we’re not huge, right? So they’re very lumpy based on what mix close. But your insight is right. So if you look at some of the energy deals, we’re quite large. That drove some of that. So again, it’s — we tend to be a little lumpy on that on the size because of we just don’t look that big. So 3 deals could really matter. But again, as I look forward, it’s a tough market, right? Commercial is down pretty significantly. It’s probably down if you look at industry data, probably 40%, 50%, we’re down less than that because we’re being a little successful but it’s a down market, and it will continue to be. What’s weird about commercial, that’s a little bit, in my view, something that we have to understand and understand the risk.

So it tends to have a lot of closings in December. And we have a lot of business and we have a lot of stuff in the pipe and we have a lot of files. But with this market uncertainty could a different percent close at the end of the year. And so that’s the one thing I’m watching because, again, we’ve got lots of pipe. We’ve got lots of activity. But it’s a weird business where December by far is always our biggest month and so we’ve obviously got to focus on that. We’ll see how that turns up. But in general, I’m very comfortable with how we’re attacking the market.

Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question will come from John Campbell with Stephens, Inc.

John Campbell: I just wanted to check maybe on the other orders. I mean I think you had a — it was over 100% sequential increase, a pretty big step up there. Hoping you can maybe help with the modeling there. I think David, in the past, you’ve said that that’s not going to be too seasonal that won’t really mirror the purchase seasonality. But I’m curious about how to model that going forward? And then also, if you can maybe help with the average fee per file of the other orders.