Mortgage insurers MGIC (MTG) and Radian (RDN) rose in Wednesday stock trading, on the back of solid third-quarter earnings. And while the stock is lifting on the HW 30 — an exclusive index of companies impacting the housing economy — the mortgage insurers are being outpaced by some user-friendly real estate websites.
MGIC reported a net income of $12.1 million compared with a net loss of $246.9 million for the same quarter a year ago.
"The favorable economic trends we have been benefiting from relative to home-price appreciation and employment over the last several quarters have continued,” MGIC chief executive officer Curt Culver said in the statement.
MGIC appears to be getting other problems under control. Losses incurred in the third quarter were $180.2 million, compared to $490.1 million in the third quarter of 2012, reflecting fewer new delinquency notices received, a lower claim rate and favorable development in severity.
New insurance written for the first nine months of 2013 was $23.1 billion compared to $17.1 billion for the same period last year.
The only companies beating the mortgage insurance performance, besides JP Morgan (JPM), are real estate services and valuation providers Trulia (TRLA) and Zillow (Z).
The website got a shot in the arm after Deutsche Bank analyst Lloyd Walmsley gave the companies a buy rating.
"We see upside to both Trulia and Zillow 3Q results but favor Trulia given under-monetization and valuation." Walmsley wrote.
