Stewart Information Services Corporation (NYSE:STC) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Transcript February 8, 2024 8:30 AM ET

Company Participants

Brian Glaze - Chief Accounting Officer

Fred Eppinger - CEO

David Hisey - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Soham Bhonsle - BTIG

Bose George - KBW

John Campbell - Stephens Inc.

Geoffrey Dunn - Dowling & Partners

Operator

Hello, and thank you for joining the Stewart Information Services Fourth Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, you will have an opportunity to ask questions during the question-and-answer session. Instructions will be given at that time. Please note today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions] It is now my pleasure to turn the conference over to Brian Glaze, Chief Accounting Officer. Please go ahead.

Brian Glaze

Thank you for joining us today for Stewart's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference Call. We will be discussing results that were released yesterday after the close. Joining me today are CEO, Fred Eppinger; and CFO, David Hisey. To listen online, please go to the stewart.com website to access the link for this conference call.

This conference call may contain forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Please refer to the company's press release and other filings with the SEC for a discussion of the risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially. During our call, we will discuss some non-GAAP measures. For a reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures, please refer to the appendix in today's earnings release, which is available on our website at stewart.com.

Let me now turn the call over to Fred.

Fred Eppinger

Thanks, Brian, and thank you for joining us today for Stewart's fourth quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Yesterday we released financial results for the quarter and Dave will review these in a minute. Before doing so though, I'd like to update you on my view of the market and our continued progress on important initiatives that we believe will set Stewart up for long-term success.

While we have thoughtfully managed through this very difficult economic [Technical Difficulty] expenses and invested carefully, we have continued to invest in a number of critical areas to materially improve our business. Our focus has been on creating a stronger and more resilient enterprise that will thrive over a full real estate site cycle. As we close 2023, we are operating in an environment that saw mortgage interest rates reach a high of 8% during the fourth quarter before falling to around mid 6% near the end of the year. Mortgage rates and rate volatility continue to impact transaction volumes and we find ourselves at historic lows for sale of existing homes.