Enact (ACT) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

Motley Fool Transcribing, The Motley Fool Wed, May 6, 2026 at 11:18 PM GMT+7 29 min read ACT Image source: The Motley Fool. President and Chief Executive Officer — Rohit Gupta Chief Financial Officer — Hardin Dean Mitchell Need a quote from a Motley Fool analyst? Email pr@fool.com Rohit will provide an overview of our business performance and progress against our strategy. Dean will then discuss the details of our quarterly results before turning the call back to Rohit for closing remarks. We will then take your questions. The earnings materials we issued after market close yesterday contain our financial results for the quarter, along with a comprehensive set of financial and operational metrics. These are available on the Investor Relations section of our website. Today s call is being recorded and will include the use of forward-looking statements. These statements are based on current assumptions, estimates, expectations and projections as of today s date. Additionally, they are subject to risks and uncertainties, which may cause actual results to be materially different, and we undertake no obligation to update or revise such statements as a result of new information. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please review the cautionary language regarding forward-looking statements in today s press release as well as in our filings with the SEC, which will be available on our website. Please keep in mind the earnings materials and management s prepared remarks today will include certain non-GAAP measures. Reconciliations of these measures to the most relevant GAAP metrics can be found in the press release, our earnings presentation and our upcoming SEC filings on our website. With that, I ll turn the call over to Rohit. Rohit Gupta: Thank you, Daniel. Good morning, everyone. Enact delivered a strong start to 2026 amid a volatile rate environment. This performance was underpinned by the disciplined execution of our strategy, resilient credit performance and our clear focus on long-term value creation. For the first quarter, we reported adjusted operating income of $172 million or $1.21 per diluted share. Adjusted return on equity was 13%, and we generated strong new insurance written of $13 billion, resulting in total insurance in force of $272 billion. The housing market remained dynamic with mortgage rate volatility impacting mortgage activity in the quarter. Overall, purchase application volumes followed seasonal trends, while lower rates early in the quarter supported elevated refinance applications. Additionally, recent loan vintages with lower embedded equity have contributed to increased mortgage insurance penetration in refinance activity. Conversely, as rates increased during March and April, the refinance trend slowed, but we have seen the impact of the spring selling season on purchase applications. Against this backdrop, persistency remained elevated at 80% in the first quarter. Additionally, across our portfolio, 58% of loans in our book have rates below 6%, providing continued support for elevated persistency. While the macro environment remains uncertain and inflationary pressures accelerated as gas prices have risen, the consumer continues to show resilience. Overall, labor market conditions remain supportive and credit performance remains healthy. Importantly, we are not seeing any meaningful impact within our credit portfolio and overall credit trends remain in line with our expectations. We will continue to monitor these dynamics closely and believe that the underlying credit fundamentals of our business remain strong. In fact, our Insurance-in-Force portfolio remains resilient with a risk-weighted average FICO score of 746, risk-weighted average loan-to-value ratio of 93% and layered risk was 1.2% of risk in-force. Pricing remained constructive in the quarter, and our dynamic risk-adjusted pricing engine, Rate360, is enabling us to prudently target the right risk for the right price at a granular level with changing market conditions. Turning to losses. Total delinquencies were down 1% sequentially, with new delinquencies down 1% and cures up 13%, both consistent with seasonal trends. Our strong cure performance was driven by favorable credit trends and our effective loss mitigation efforts. This drove a net reserve release of $39 million in the quarter, and our resulting loss ratio was 15%. Credit performance continues to be strong, and we are well reserved for a range of scenarios. Turning to expenses. We delivered another quarter of prudent expense management, putting us on track to achieve our 2026 expense guidance range of $215 million to $220 million, excluding reorganizational costs. We continue to execute against our capital allocation priorities, including maintaining a strong and resilient balance sheet to support existing policyholders, investing in our business to drive organic growth and operating efficiencies, funding attractive new business opportu

Enact (ACT) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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Enact (ACT) Q1 2026 Earnings Transcript

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