First American sells 45% of remaining CoreLogic ownership
By Justin T. Hilley
First American Financial ($18.01 0.08%) sold 45% of its ownership in mortgage data and analytics firm
Corelogic ($23.16 0.36%) earlier this week, Mark Seaton, First American senior vice president, said Thursday.
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The company, which provides title insurance and settlement services to the mortgage industry, reported net income more than double in the second quarter to $73 million, or 68 cents a share, beating analyst estimates of 44 cents, according to Zack’s Investment Research. In the year-ago period, it reported $32.3 million, or 30 cents a share.
Total revenues for the quarter of 2012 totaled $1.1 billion, an increase of 18% relative to the second quarter of 2011.
First American’s second-quarter title insurance and services segment pretax margin of 11.7% was the highest since 2005.
“Second-quarter open orders were up 36% year-over-year, primarily driven by strong refinance activity,” said First American Chief Executive Dennis Gilmore. “We also saw an increased in the resale and commercial transactions in the quarter. Given first-half results and a string order pipeline, we are on track to deliver on our goal of an 8% to 10% title margin for the full year 2012.”
CoreLogic took earnings and revenue to record levels in the second quarter, reporting net income of $42.6 million in the quarter, with more than $1.3 million in gains and sales on discontinued operations. The profits increased from $31.4 million one year ago when the company lost more than $8.5 million from discontinued businesses