FNF Posts 17% Increase in Second Quarter Earnings

FNF Group Inc., the title insurance portion of Fidelity National Financial Inc., had second quarter net earnings of $187 million, up nearly 17% from $160 million one year prior.

FNF's title business had net earnings of $182 million, compared with net earnings of $171 million in the second quarter of 2015.

The most recent results included a $15 million contribution to the bottom line from the company's ownership stake in Black Knight Financial Services. This is down from $21 million one year prior.

The corporate and other segment had a net loss of $10 million, an improvement over the net loss of $32 million one year ago.

Residential direct orders opened, a measure of how many title searches are requested, totaled 577,000, with 57% being purchase transactions. One year prior there were 560,000 direct orders opened, with 57% being for a home purchase.

Commercial title revenue fell to $244 million from $258 million as both the number of open orders during the quarter and the fee per file declined.

"With the decline in interest rates in late June, we have already begun to see a meaningful increase in refinance openings in the last three weeks, which bodes well for improved third quarter refinance closings. As we enter the second half of 2016, we will continue to strive to maximize earnings from our operations and remain the most profitable title insurance company in the country," said William Foley, non-executive chairman of FNF in that company's press release. He is also the executive chairman of Black Knight.

Fidelity National Financial's restaurant and other investment holdings are in a separately traded and reported tracking stock.

Black Knight became a separately traded public company last May. For the second quarter, it had net earnings attributable to its own common stockholders of $11.4 million, compared with $0.3 million in 2015.

Among the second quarter milestones for Black Knight in the second quarter was Bank of America returning to its MSP servicing system. It also purchased Motivity Solutions and eLynx.

"Our second quarter results reflect our continued focus on driving revenue growth through cross-selling, winning new clients in existing markets and the introduction of new products and solutions to support continuing regulatory changes in the mortgage industry," said Black Knight President and Chief Executive Officer Tom Sanzone in that company's earnings press release.