Arch Capital Group reported its fourth-quarter earnings which came in 11.88% higher than expected, according to Nasdaq, which provides financial portfolios, stock ratings and real-time alerts.
While earnings were predicted to come in at $1.01 per diluted common share, the company reported earnings of $1.13 per diluted common share on after-tax income.
However net income came in at $62.4 million, or $0.50 per share, and increase to the previous year’s $53.1 million or $0.42 per common share.
The company earned $109 million in underwriting income, a decrease of 3.4% from the fourth quarter of 2015. However, for the year as a whole, the company earned $455 million, up 5.9% from the previous year’s $430 billion.
The company wrote a total of $138 million in mortgage insurance premiums, up a full 50.7% from the fourth quarter of 2015, to $4.4 million in mortgage underwriting income. This is an increase of 25.8% from 2015’s $3.5 million in underwriting income.
This is even an increase from the company’s mortgage insurance written in the third quarter, which totaled $131 million and was an increase of 76.4% annually.
Also this year, American International Group officially closed the sale of its mortgage-guaranty unit United Guaranty to Arch on Dec. 31, 2016. The company explained its net income available to common shareholders represented an annualized return on average common equity of 3.9% for the 2016 fourth quarter, due primarily to net realized losses and non-recurring transaction costs related to the acquisition.
