Timothy Mattke
Analyst · Dowling & Partners. Your line is open
Thanks, Pat. In the second quarter we earned $186.8 million of net income or $0.49 per diluted share compared to $118.6 million or $0.31 per diluted share in the same period last year. To provide better insight into our operating results and to make year-over-year comparisons and financial results more meaningful, we disclosed adjusted net operating income and non-GAAP measure. While there were only immaterial impacts in the quarter, the reconciliation of GAAP net income to adjusted non-net operating income is included in the body of the press release. There were multiple drivers of the improvement of our financial performance for the quarter including higher earned premiums and investment income, lower losses incurred and lower tax provision. Premiums earned increased primarily due to a higher cost commission. I will go into more detail about the higher profit commission in a moment. The tax provision for the second quarter of 2018 reflects some due lower corporate tax rate compared to same period last year. Losses incurred rate negative $13.5 million compared to $27.3 million for the same period last year. Losses incurred consistent reserves established on new delinquent notices plus any changes to previously established loss reserves. As we do each quarter, we review the performance of the delinquent inventory to determine what if any changes should be made to the estimated claim rates and severity factors of previously received notices. We continue to see some positive primary loss reserve developments specifically before considering the impact of our reinsurance communities. We recognized $70 million of positive development on primary loss reserves compared to $52 million of positive developments in the second quarter of 2017. The positive development was driven by higher than expected cure rate, especially performances of final and delinquent inventory for 12 months or longer. We also saw improvement in the 4 to 11 months category. During the quarter we received 16% fewer notices that we had over the same period last year. The claim rate on these new notices received in the quarter was approximately 90.5%, which reflects the current economic environment and anticipated gears and compared to 11% in the second quarter of 2017. New delinquent notices received in the legacy books continue to generate the majority of new notice activity in the quarter. The legacy books accounted for 74% of the new delinquent notices received while accounting for approximately 19% of the risk in force as of June 30, 2018. New delinquent activity from the larger more recently written books remains quite lower reflecting their high price quality as well as the current economic condition. We expect that the legacy books will continue to be the primary source of new notice activity in the coming quarters. Reflecting the smaller delinquent inventory and the impact of the GSE for closure moratoriums related to the hurricanes. The number of claims received in the quarter declined 36% from the same period last year. Net stake claims in the second quarter were $91 million. The effective average premium yields for the second quarter of 2018 was 49.6 basis points, which was up a little more than 2 basis points from last quarter. As I've discussed in the past, for a variety of reasons including the policy of yield book, changes of premium refund accruals, changes of single premium recognition and losses due to the reinsurers to reported net deals can have some volatility to it. This increase in the premium yields in the quarter was due primarily due to positive primary loss reserve development we reported this quarter. The positive loss reserve development resulted in a decrease of ceded losses, which in turn resulted in a decrease of ceded premium earned. Positive development also resulted in a decrease of the accrual for premium refunds as we expect to pay fewer claims from the delinquent inventory. As a reminder, our profit commission is reported through the net premiums earned line is directly correlated with the ceded losses incurred. As ceded losses decrease the profit commission increases and of course the opposite attributable ceded losses increase. If we exclude all the impacts of the positive losses of development from the Q2 results, the premium yield was about flat to Q1 of 2018. So while there will be some volatility in any given quarter from the items I just mentioned, we expect that the effective premium yield will trend lower in future periods as the old book continues to run off and the impact of the new premium rates take effect over the next several years. However, the exact amount in any given quarter is difficult to predict. Net underwriting and other expenses were $44.7 million in the second quarter of 2018 compared to $41.1 million in the same period last year. The increase in expenses was primarily due to higher stock based compensation, which resulted primarily from a higher stock price of the grants paid and changes to our nonexecutive compensation. At the end of the second quarter, MGIC's available assets for PMIER's purposes totaled approximately $4.8 billion resulting in a $980 million excess over the required assets. MGIC's best rate capital is $2.4 billion in excess of the state requirement. As we reported in the press release, during the quarter, MGIC paid a $50 million dividend to the holding company. We expect the dividend of at least this level will continue to be paid on a quarterly basis. Additionally we repurchased 9.2 million shares of common stock at a weighted average price of $10.88 per share. In addition to writing new business and exploring new opportunities as they arise we'll try to manage the amount of PMIER's excess by continually reviewing our use of reinsurance as well as continuing to seek and pay dividends on the writing companies to the holding company. When we analyze various options to deploy our capital resources we need to take into account the holding company's primary source capital is the writing company. So while capital is being created at the writing company level, we notify and make sure the OCI does not object any dividends payment from MGIC. We also consider the resulting leverage ratio, the ability to continue our positive ratings trajectory, the debt service ability of the holding company and of course any changes to PMIERS. We'll continue to evaluate all capital management options. At quarter end our consolidated cash and investment totaled $5.1 billion including $191 million of cash in investments in the holding company. The consolidated investment portfolio had a mix of 71% taxable and 29% tax exempt securities, a pretax yield of 2.91%, up nearly 10 basis points from last quarter, and a duration of 4.2 years, which is unchanged from last quarter. Our debt to total capital ratio was approximately 20% at the end of the second quarter of 2018. Finally, I know many of you are interested in possible changes to PMIERS or PMIERS 2.0. As a reminder, in December 2017, we received from the GSEs summary proposed changes to the PMIERS. In June 2018, we received a revised draft of proposed changes to the PMIERS we expect will be finalized in the third quarter of 2018 and become effective at the end of the first quarter of 2019. Upon effectiveness of PMIERS 2.0, we expect MGIC would continue to have an excess of Available Assets over Minimum Required Assets. Although our excess will be materially lower than it was at June 30, 2018, and then MGIC would continue to be able to pay quarterly dividend to our holding company in the $50 million quarterly rate. Since we are bound by a nondisclosure agreement, we do not plan to provide updates on details of the discussion with the GSEs and I think just fair until they are finalized. Finally, with regard to changes in PMIERS, I think it is important to point out since we expect the proposed changes will result in MGIC having an excess, our GAAP return should not be materially impacted by any changes that are being contemplated under PMIERS 2.0. With that let me turn it back to Pat.