Hội nghị công bố kết quả kinh doanh quý 3/2026 của FNF: Lợi nhuận mảng bảo hiểm quyền sở hữu tăng khi doanh thu thương mại tăng trưởng

Điểm nhấn chính

• FNF công bố lợi nhuận ròng điều chỉnh quý 3/2026 đạt 352 triệu USD, tương đương 1,32 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu pha loãng, so với mức 439 triệu USD, tương đương 1,63 USD trên mỗi cổ phiếu trong quý 3/2025.
• Lợi nhuận trước thuế điều chỉnh của mảng Title tăng 3% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên 422 triệu USD. Biên lợi nhuận trước thuế điều chỉnh của mảng Title đạt 17,1%, so với mức 17,8% của cùng kỳ năm trước.
• Doanh thu thương mại trực tiếp đạt 1,2 tỷ USD trong 9 tháng đầu năm 2026, tăng 22%. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết mảng kinh doanh thương mại vẫn trên đà ghi nhận một năm kỷ lục.
• Tổng tài sản quản lý (AUM) trước tái bảo hiểm của F&G tăng 7% so với cùng kỳ năm trước lên 76,2 tỷ USD. Tổng doanh số quý 3 đạt 3 tỷ USD, bao gồm doanh số bán lẻ cốt lõi kỷ lục 2,1 tỷ USD.
• Lãi suất thế chấp neo cao cùng yếu tố mùa vụ thông thường đã làm suy yếu khối lượng đơn hàng trong tháng 10. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến biên lợi nhuận trước thuế điều chỉnh của mảng Title trong quý 4 sẽ hướng về vùng thấp của biên độ bình thường từ 15%–20%, trong điều kiện các yếu tố khác không đổi.
• FNF đã hoàn trả khoảng 143 triệu USD cho các cổ đông trong quý 3 và 561 triệu USD trong 9 tháng đầu năm. Tiền mặt và các khoản đầu tư thanh khoản ngắn hạn tại công ty mẹ kết thúc quý ở mức 545 triệu USD.

Dữ liệu tài chính cốt lõi

Kết quả kinh doanh và hoạt động vận hành

Hoạt động mảng Title

Số lượng đơn hàng mua nhà mở mới hàng ngày tăng 3% so với quý 3/2025 nhưng giảm 9% so với quý trước. Đơn hàng mua nhà trong tháng 10 giảm 6% so với cùng kỳ năm trước khi lãi suất thế chấp neo cao gia tăng thêm áp lực ngoài yếu tố mùa vụ thông thường.

Đơn hàng tái tài trợ thế chấp đạt trung bình 1.400 đơn mỗi ngày, giảm từ mức 1.600 đơn ở cả quý 3/2025 và quý 2/2026. Trong tháng 10, đơn hàng tái tài trợ giảm xuống 1.200 đơn mỗi ngày, giảm 35% so với cùng kỳ năm trước. Tái tài trợ chỉ chiếm 6% doanh thu trực tiếp của mảng Title trong quý.

Tổng số đơn hàng mở mới đạt trung bình 5.800 đơn mỗi ngày trong quý 3, giảm từ 5.900 đơn trong tháng 7 xuống 5.600 đơn trong tháng 9. Đơn hàng tháng 10 đạt trung bình 4.700 đơn mỗi ngày, giảm 17% so với cùng kỳ năm trước.

Đà tăng trưởng mảng thương mại

Doanh thu thương mại trực tiếp tăng 22% lên 1,2 tỷ USD trong 9 tháng đầu năm. Tổng số đơn hàng thương mại đạt trung bình 876 đơn mỗi ngày, tăng 2% so với cùng kỳ năm trước nhưng giảm 5% so với quý trước.

FNF đã chốt 24 giao dịch với mức phí bảo hiểm mỗi giao dịch đạt hơn 1 triệu USD trong quý 3. Ban lãnh đạo mô tả danh mục dự án thương mại tiềm năng diễn ra trên diện rộng ở các phân khúc bất động sản công nghiệp, trung tâm dữ liệu, khu căn hộ (multifamily), nhà ở giá phải chăng, bán lẻ và năng lượng. Công ty cũng coi việc tái tài trợ cho các giao dịch trung tâm dữ liệu đã hoàn tất trước đó là một nguồn nhu cầu định kỳ chưa được đánh giá đúng mức.

Công nghệ và năng suất

FNF đã hoàn thành gần 100.000 lượt xác minh danh tính nâng cao thông qua quan hệ đối tác với CLEAR. Dịch vụ giám sát bất động sản của công ty đã tiếp cận hơn 250.000 chủ nhà, trong khi tỷ lệ áp dụng nền tảng số inHere đạt gần 88% trên toàn bộ các giao dịch mua bán nhà ở đủ điều kiện.

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các trợ lý AI (AI agent) hiện đã được đưa vào quy trình vận hành thực tế trong suốt quá trình bảo hiểm quyền sở hữu và tất toán giao dịch. Công ty kỳ vọng các công cụ này sẽ giúp cải thiện hiệu quả thực thi và nâng cao năng suất theo thời gian.

F&G

F&G đã đạt doanh số bán lẻ cốt lõi kỷ lục 2,1 tỷ USD. Doanh số thuần đạt 1,4 tỷ USD, phản ánh việc sử dụng hình thức tái bảo hiểm theo dòng (flow reinsurance) cho các sản phẩm niên kim bảo đảm nhiều năm và niên kim theo chỉ số cố định nhằm phù hợp với các mục tiêu vốn.

Danh mục đầu tư giữ lại tiếp tục duy trì 97% ở mức xếp hạng đầu tư đối với các tài sản có ngày đáo hạn cố định. Ban lãnh đạo cho biết doanh số cơ hội đã được chủ động cắt giảm khi lợi nhuận giảm xuống dưới các ngưỡng yêu cầu.

Định hướng của ban lãnh đạo

• FNF dự kiến biên lợi nhuận trước thuế điều chỉnh của mảng Title trong quý 4 sẽ hướng về vùng thấp của biên độ bình thường từ 15%–20%, giả định các điều kiện khác không thay đổi.
• Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng đà tăng trưởng mảng thương mại sẽ duy trì bền vững trong ngắn hạn và tin rằng năm 2027 có thể là một năm khởi sắc tiếp theo, nhờ được hỗ trợ bởi danh mục dự án tiềm năng dồi dào trên khắp các khu vực địa lý và loại hình tài sản.
• Thu nhập từ lãi và đầu tư hàng quý của mảng Title và Công ty mẹ dự kiến sẽ tăng từ 98 triệu USD trong quý 3 lên khoảng 105 triệu USD trong quý 4, sau đó tăng thêm khoảng 5 triệu USD trong mỗi quý tiếp theo cho đến hết năm 2027. Triển vọng này dựa trên giả định Cục Dự trữ Liên bang Mỹ (Fed) sẽ tăng thêm 75 điểm cơ bản lãi suất trong 9 tháng tới.
• Thu nhập cổ tức từ cổ phiếu phổ thông và cổ phiếu ưu đãi của F&G trả cho mảng Công ty mẹ dự kiến đạt khoảng 28 triệu USD mỗi quý trong hai quý tới, sau đó giảm xuống khoảng 25 triệu USD sau đợt chuyển đổi cổ phiếu ưu đãi chuyển đổi bắt buộc theo kế hoạch.
• Ban lãnh đạo F&G đặt mục tiêu tăng trưởng tổng AUM ở mức một chữ số cao và tăng trưởng AUM thuần ở mức một chữ số thấp, nhờ vào sự hỗ trợ của tái bảo hiểm và các chiến lược ít thâm dụng vốn.
• Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng hoạt động tuyển dụng và các thương vụ mua lại bổ trợ sẽ giúp nâng cao biên lợi nhuận khi các đội ngũ mới gia nhập gần đây đạt mức năng suất tối đa vào năm 2027.

Rủi ro và các yếu tố cần theo dõi

Lãi suất thế chấp neo cao và biến động vẫn là trở ngại chính đối với hoạt động mua nhà ở và tái tài trợ. Ban lãnh đạo cũng viện dẫn yếu tố mùa vụ thông thường trong quý 4, với việc tháng 10 ghi nhận sự sụt giảm so với cùng kỳ năm trước ở các đơn hàng mua bán, tái tài trợ và thương mại.

Chi phí nhân sự tăng 10% và các chi phí hoạt động khác tăng 13% ở mảng Title. Hoạt động tuyển dụng, mua lại và đầu tư công nghệ có thể gây áp lực lên biên lợi nhuận trước khi mang lại nguồn doanh thu và hiệu quả năng suất tương ứng.

Chiến lược của F&G chú trọng vào hiệu quả sử dụng vốn và tái bảo hiểm, khiến tăng trưởng AUM thuần khiêm tốn hơn tăng trưởng tổng AUM. Ban lãnh đạo cũng cho biết giá trị mảng kinh doanh của F&G chưa được phản ánh đầy đủ vào giá cổ phiếu của F&G lẫn FNF.

Ban lãnh đạo cho biết còn quá sớm để đánh giá tác động thực tế của sắc lệnh hành pháp liên quan đến FHFA được nhắc tới. Ban lãnh đạo cũng đề cập đến tính minh bạch hạn chế xung quanh hoạt động miễn trừ bảo hiểm quyền sở hữu, dù FNF chưa ghi nhận bằng chứng thực tế đáng kể nào về việc mất đơn hàng trong hoạt động kinh doanh.

Điểm nhấn phiên hỏi đáp với chuyên gia phân tích

• Tuyển dụng và nhân sự: FNF đã bổ sung khoảng 300 nhân viên thông qua tuyển dụng và một thương vụ mua lại trong quý 3 và khoảng 600 nhân viên trong cả năm. Lực lượng nhân sự trực tiếp thuần của mảng Title tăng khoảng 100 người trong quý 3 do công ty đã bắt đầu thực hiện một số đợt cắt giảm nhân sự.
• Định giá thương vụ mua lại: Ban lãnh đạo cho biết các thương vụ mua lại bổ trợ trong mảng Title tiếp tục được thực hiện ở mức khoảng 4–6 lần lợi nhuận trước thuế.
• Bảo vệ biên lợi nhuận: Nếu khối lượng giao dịch suy yếu, ban lãnh đạo cho biết FNF có thể điều chỉnh nhân sự và chi phí trong khi vẫn tiếp tục theo đuổi mục tiêu gia tăng thị phần thông qua tuyển dụng và mua lại.
• Phân bổ vốn: FNF cho biết 100 triệu–200 triệu USD là lượng tiền mặt phù hợp tại công ty mẹ. Ban lãnh đạo dự kiến sẽ cân nhắc việc mua lại cổ phiếu quyết liệt hơn sau khi giai đoạn hạn chế giao dịch kết thúc, đồng thời cân đối với cổ tức, các thương vụ mua lại và nghĩa vụ nợ.
• Miễn trừ bảo hiểm quyền sở hữu: Ban lãnh đạo viện dẫn thông tin công khai cho thấy có khoảng 22.000 giao dịch miễn trừ trong hai năm, so với hơn 3 triệu giao dịch tái tài trợ nhà ở trong giai đoạn này.
• Chiến lược của F&G: Ban lãnh đạo kỳ vọng tăng trưởng tổng doanh số sẽ song hành cùng mức tăng trưởng AUM giữ lại khiêm tốn hơn khi F&G sử dụng hình thức tái bảo hiểm theo dòng và ưu tiên các kênh mang lại lợi nhuận cao hơn, sử dụng vốn hiệu quả hơn.

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Toàn văn cuộc gọi công bố kết quả kinh doanh

Phần trình bày của ban lãnh đạo

Operator

Good morning. Welcome to FNF's Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]

I would now like to turn the call over to Lisa Foxworthy-Parker, Senior Vice President, Investor and External Relations. Please go ahead.

Lisa Foxworthy-Parker

Thanks, operator, and welcome, everyone. I'm joined today by Mike Nolan, CEO; and Tony Park, CFO. We look forward to addressing your questions following our prepared remarks. F&G's management team, including Conor Murphy, CEO and President; and Mike Bailey, CFO, will also be available for Q&A.

Today's earnings call may include forward-looking statements and projections under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which do not guarantee future events or performance. We do not undertake any duty to revise or update such statements to reflect new information, subsequent events or changes in strategy. Please refer to our most recent quarterly and annual reports and other SEC filings for details on important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied.

This morning's discussion also includes non-GAAP measures, which management believes are relevant in assessing the financial performance of the business. Non-GAAP measures have been reconciled to GAAP as required and in accordance with SEC rules within our earnings materials available on the company's investor website. Please note that today's call is being recorded and will be available for webcast replay.

And with that, I'll hand the call over to Mike Nolan.

Mike Nolan

Thank you, Lisa, and good morning. We delivered strong third quarter results across both our Title business and F&G segment, demonstrating the power of our dual earnings engines and our ability to execute in dynamic market conditions.

I'd like to start by thanking our employees for their hard work and dedication. There is no doubt we are navigating a challenging real estate cycle, yet our team continues to generate industry-leading performance that is well ahead of the competition. Together, we are managing through this period with a disciplined operating strategy, which generates a steady level of free cash flow. This allows us to continue to invest in recruiting talent, attractive acquisitions, technology and innovation as we manage the business for the long term while performing in the immediate term.

Turning to our Title segment. We delivered adjusted pretax title earnings of $422 million for the third quarter, up 3% over the third quarter of 2025. This generated an industry-leading adjusted pretax title margin of 17.1% for the third quarter as compared to 17.8% in both the sequential and prior year quarters. As we discussed on our second quarter call, we expected some modest sequential compression due to recent strategic investments in recruiting and attractive tuck-in acquisitions in recent months where expenses tend to come ahead of the associated revenue contribution.

The compression compared to the third quarter of 2025 was also expected due to favorable onetime items in the prior year period and continued investment in technology. Overall, our third quarter results reflect strong performance across the business and disciplined expense management.

Looking at our Title results more closely, starting with purchase, U.S. existing home sales continue to reflect a low transactional environment due to mortgage rates and housing market dynamics. Mortgage rates remain high, but have fallen from their recent peak following the Federal Reserve rate hike in September. This is the opposite of the trend we saw in 2025 and has amplified the normal seasonal decline. Over the course of the year, purchase orders opened have held up well through August with each month comparing favorably to the prior year before falling behind by 2% for the month of September. Importantly, we continue to steadily outperform relative to our peers.

For the quarter, our daily purchase orders opened were up 3% over the third quarter of 2025, down 9% from the second quarter of 2026 and down 6% for the month of October versus the prior year. Our residential refinance volumes continue to be responsive to 30-year mortgage rates, although accounting for only 6% of our direct revenue in the third quarter. Notably, we have demonstrated our ability to generate strong adjusted pretax title margins without a substantial refinance market over the past five years.

Refinance orders opened were 1,400 per day in the third quarter as compared to 1,600 in both the prior year and sequential quarters. Given mortgage rates in October, we saw refinance orders opened decrease to 1,200 per day, reflecting how refinance volumes can quickly change with moves in rates. Our refinance orders opened per day were down 11% from the third quarter of 2025, down 7% from the second quarter of 2026 and down 35% for the month of October versus the prior year.

Our commercial business is on pace for a record year. Direct commercial revenue was $1.2 billion in the first nine months, up 22% over $1 billion in the first nine months of 2025. National and local market daily orders opened trended down 1% and up 6%, respectively, in the third quarter as compared to the prior year quarter. Total commercial orders opened were 876 per day, up 2% over the third quarter of 2025, down 5% from the second quarter of 2026 and down 6% for the month of October versus the prior year.

We closed 24 transactions generating over $1 million each in premiums in the third quarter across multiple asset classes in both our direct and agency businesses. This is reflected in our higher trending commercial fee per file. We view the current momentum in commercial as sustainable over the near term. Our commercial strength continues to be broad-based across both geographies and asset classes. The composition of our commercial pipeline remains healthy and includes a mix of industrial, data centers, multifamily, affordable housing, retail and energy transactions. At this time, we expect office to gradually recover with top-tier properties leading the rebound.

One question that I often receive is around data centers. We have seen data center transactions in our pipeline over the past four years and in some cases, have already seen refinances of transactions that closed between 2022 and 2024, which is an underappreciated demand driver. Similar to energy, data centers tend to be higher premium transactions, although comprising a small portion of the overall order count. This shows up in our national fee per file, which benefits from the larger energy and data center deals.

To bring it all together, total orders opened averaged 5,800 per day in the third quarter, with July at 5,900, August at 5,800 and September at 5,600. For the month of October, total orders opened were 4,700 per day, down 17% from the prior year. Looking to the fourth quarter, we remain optimistic about our commercial momentum, although we recognize the impact on residential purchase and refinance volumes of elevated mortgage rates and the typical fourth quarter seasonality. All else equal, we would expect our adjusted pretax title margin to move toward the lower end of our 15% to 20% normal range in the fourth quarter.

Over time, as mortgage rates eventually improve, we believe residential purchase and refinance activity will accelerate and trend toward historical levels. This recovery represents additional earnings power given the operational leverage that we have built into our model. This operational leverage is also supported by the investments we continue to make in technology and AI.

FNF provides essential services that extend well beyond the title insurance policy. We also manage the settlement process from start to finish. We are the rails on which real estate transactions run. For years, we have invested with the vision of building a differentiated technology platform with one overarching objective, to make every real estate transaction faster, safer, and simpler. That objective is showing up in what we are delivering today. Since we rolled out our partnership with CLEAR last year, we have run nearly 100,000 enhanced identity verifications across our operations to counter impersonation and wire fraud in property sales.

Since we launched property monitoring earlier this year, we have provided visibility and alerts as a complementary service to over 250,000 homeowners after closing. We continue to receive positive feedback from our customers on this value-add service. We are accelerating our property monitoring rollout, and we expect it to become the largest footprint in the industry. We are also driving deeper digital engagement with nearly 88% adoption of inHere across eligible residential sale transactions.

That is the foundation. AI is the next layer. We're already deploying AI-driven agents into production workflows to improve speed and execution across the title and settlement process. This isn't a pilot. It's operational. AI is still early, but the direction is clear, a better experience for our customers and higher productivity for us. Combined with our broader technology investments, these capabilities strengthen our competitive position and our ability to consistently deliver industry-leading adjusted pretax title margins over time.

Turning now to our F&G segment. F&G's assets under management before reinsurance have surpassed the $75 billion milestone at September 30. Gross AUM of $76.2 billion was up 7% over the prior year quarter. F&G continues to expand its retail and institutional franchises and delivered its best core retail sales quarter in history. Opportunistic sales were intentionally lower due to returns below threshold as F&G continues to allocate capital to the highest return opportunities.

On a stand-alone basis, F&G reported GAAP equity, excluding AOCI, of $6.7 billion at quarter end and has grown its book value per share, excluding AOCI, to $51.37, up 87% since the 2020 acquisition. We believe that the components of F&G's business, the new business platform, profitable in-force block and capital-light fee-based strategies each represent a distinct and measurable source of long-term value that are not yet fully reflected in F&G's current market valuation. At recent levels, the F&G stock has an especially attractive dividend yield around 5%, which is above average for the publicly traded life and annuity sector. We remain pleased with F&G's operating performance and foresee plenty of opportunities to grow AUM and increase the value of the business over time.

With that, let me now turn the call over to Tony to review FNF's third quarter financial performance and provide additional insights.

Anthony Park

Thank you, Mike. Starting with our consolidated results, we generated $3.6 billion in total revenue in the third quarter. Excluding net recognized gains and losses, our total revenue was $3.5 billion as, compared with $3.9 billion in the third quarter of 2025. We reported third quarter net earnings of $633 million, including net recognized gains of $29 million versus net earnings of $358 million, including $176 million of net recognized gains in the third quarter of 2025.

Adjusted net earnings were $352 million or $1.32 per diluted share, compared with $439 million or $1.63 per share in the third quarter of 2025. The Title segment contributed $315 million, the F&G segment contributed $72 million, and the Corporate segment had an adjusted net loss of $7 million before eliminating $28 million of dividend income from F&G in the consolidated financial statements.

Turning to third quarter financial highlights specific to the Title segment. Our Title segment generated $2.5 billion in total revenue in the third quarter, excluding net recognized losses of $19 million, compared with $2.3 billion in the third quarter of 2025. Direct premiums increased 11% over the prior year. Agency premiums increased 3% and escrow title-related and other fees increased 10%. Personnel costs increased 10% and other operating expenses increased 13%.

All in, the Title business generated adjusted pretax title earnings of $422 million, up 3% over $410 million in the third quarter of 2025. And a 17.1% adjusted pretax title margin in the quarter versus 17.8% in the prior year quarter.

Our Title and Corporate investment portfolio totaled $5 billion at September 30. Interest and investment income in the Title and Corporate segments was $98 million, down 10% from the prior year quarter and excluding income from F&G dividends to the holding company. The prior year period included a benefit from a legal settlement of $7 million.

Looking ahead, we expect quarterly interest and investment income to trend up from $98 million in the third quarter to around $105 million in the fourth quarter and then increase around $5 million in each subsequent quarter through 2027. assuming an additional 75 basis points of Fed rate hikes over the next nine months.

In addition, we expect approximately $28 million per quarter of common and preferred dividend income from F&G to the Corporate segment in the next two quarters. F&G's dividend income will decrease to approximately $25 million per quarter thereafter following conversion of the mandatory convertible preferred stock during the first quarter.

Our title claims paid of $72 million were $3 million lower than our provision of $75 million for the third quarter. The carried reserve for title claim losses is approximately $10 million or 1% above the actuary central estimate. We continue to provide for title claims at 4.5% of total title premiums.

Next, turning to financial highlights specific to the F&G segment. Since F&G hosted its earnings call earlier this morning and provided a thorough update, I will provide a few key highlights. F&G's top line AUM before reinsurance increased to $76.2 billion at September 30, up 7% over the prior year. This includes retained assets under management of $56.2 billion. F&G reported gross sales of $3 billion for the third quarter. Gross sales were comprised of $2.3 billion of core sales, including record core retail sales of $2.1 billion, and nearly $700 million of opportunistic sales. This mix reflects pricing discipline and capital allocation to highest return opportunities.

F&G's net sales were $1.4 billion in the third quarter. This reflects flow reinsurance in line with capital targets for multiyear guaranteed annuities and fixed indexed annuities. F&G's retained investment portfolio performed very well once again this quarter. The portfolio is high quality with 97% of fixed maturities being investment grade. It is well matched to the liability profile and diversified across asset types.

Credit-related impairments have remained low and stable. Importantly, F&G has a clean governance model with Blackstone with no inherent conflict of interest. Adjusted net earnings for the F&G segment were $72 million for the third quarter, reflecting our approximate 72% ownership stake, compared with $139 million in the third quarter of 2025, which reflected our approximate 82% ownership stake and included the F&G Life Re subsidiary, which was sold on March 1, 2026.

F&G's core spread remains consistent as the business maintained disciplined pricing and rate setting. F&G continues to provide an important complement to our title business. In the first nine months, the F&G segment contributed 22% of FNF's adjusted net earnings, down from 32% for the first nine months of 2025.

Turning to capital and liquidity. FNF continues to maintain a strong balance sheet and balanced capital allocation strategy. As Mike mentioned, we have consistently generated a steady level of free cash flow, allowing us to continue to invest in our business and build for the long term. We also continue to return excess cash to shareholders.

During the third quarter, FNF returned approximately $143 million of capital to shareholders. This brought capital returned to shareholders during the first nine months of the year to approximately $561 million. Of note, we only completed $5 million of share repurchases during the third quarter, given that we were in a closed trading window for much of the quarter due to the timing of material nonpublic information and our standard corporate governance policies.

From a capital allocation perspective, we ended 2025 with $659 million in cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company. During the first nine months, our cash position and cash generation funded $417 million of common dividends paid. $61 million of holding company interest expense, $144 million in opportunistic share repurchases and approximately $60 million of investments in a handful of tuck-in and other title-related acquisitions, the majority of which were in the third quarter, all while keeping pace with wage inflation and funding the continued higher spend in risk and technology required in today's landscape.

We ended the third quarter with $545 million in cash and short-term liquid investments at the holding company, which is about 83% of the amount held at year-end 2025.

This concludes our prepared remarks, and let me now turn the call back to our operator for questions.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our first question is from Bose George with KBW.

Phần hỏi đáp

Bose George

In terms of margins, I know you guys don't like to sort of forecast margins, but just trying to think through the puts and takes looking out into next year. Like if the Mortgage Bankers Association is right, and we have a smaller mortgage market and the comps obviously getting tougher on commercial. Do you think like the margins prospectively could be flat? Or could there be pressure with the smaller mortgage market? Just curious how you're thinking about it.

Mike Nolan

Yes, Bose, good question. We delivered 17.1% margin in a pretty tough environment in the third quarter. And we're optimistic really as we look to next year that we could have a better rate environment. The 10-year has come down 50 basis points this month and the daily rates following. And while we don't manage the business to outlooks, we're optimistic about next year. What we control at the end of the day is our operating discipline, our focus on our customers and employees and the technology investments that allow us to continue to outperform regardless of the volume environment.

Bose George

Okay. Great. And then actually, just on the executive order that came out, it's obviously kind of broad in terms of what it says on the expanding the pilot and LLPA potential reductions, et cetera. But have you had any conversation with FHFA in terms of what that might look like in practice? Because yes, it seems like it could be a lot of different things.

Mike Nolan

Yes. I think it's too early to say, Bose, because really all the executive order did was direct the director to think about things. So what comes out of that, we just don't know yet.

Operator

Our next question is from Terry Ma with Barclays.

Terry Ma

Can you maybe just update us on the recruiting outlook and how we should think about personnel costs for Title going forward? And then on the step down for the fourth quarter margin, like any color on how much of that is seasonality in market versus just incremental costs for recruiting and tech in the run rate?

Mike Nolan

The way to think about recruiting is it's really a margin enhancer. In the short term, you can have margin compression from it. But both recruiting and acquisitions ultimately drive higher margins as the people ramp up to full productivity. As to the fourth quarter, it's both seasonality as we've seen orders come down, particularly refi with higher rates. And the strong recruiting and acquisitions we've had really this year, but particularly in the third quarter, we did add a 200-plus person agency and have more than 70 revenue recruits. So that was 300 adds in the third quarter. And we're recruiting at a level that's probably 25% stronger than we had last year, but we fully expect those to be really margin enhancers as we go into '27.

Terry Ma

Got it. Okay. And then you called out data center refi. Any way to kind of size what you've seen thus far and what the outlook is over the next year or two?

Mike Nolan

Well, there's a lot of conversations in the media about data centers. We can't predict what happens with data centers. I fully expect data centers to continue. Whether there's more or less, I don't know. The callout really had to do with that these aren't one-and-done things. Like any commercial property or really any piece of property, they transact again over time. So we see that as an underappreciated demand driver going forward. But really expect overall for commercial that '27 will be another strong year. Our pipeline is good, and the strength continues to be broad-based across geographies and asset classes.

Operator

[Operator Instructions] Our next question is from Mark Hughes with Truist Securities.

Mark Hughes

Mike, I know you haven't been able to get any clarity on the title waiver program. But could you refresh us on, when there was a waiver program, what classification, what proportion of the refis were subject to the waiver? Just kind of your latest understanding on how to dimension it.

Mike Nolan

Sure. There's not a lot of transparency on it, but I think both Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac commented in, I think, it was a National Mortgage News article or something like that, that they had handled 22,000 waiver transactions to date. So I assume that means over the past two years, 22,000. There were over 3 million residential refinances over those two-year periods. So that's about the best information we've seen publicly on it. I would also just say anecdotally, I still do not have anyone in our world here at the FNF family of companies really telling me they're losing orders to the waiver program.

Mark Hughes

Yes. Yes. Very good. And then October down 6% in terms of purchase orders. What was your commentary that the interest rates have been so volatile. I'm just sort of curious if you have any sense of kind of recent weeks, any kind of granularity on that? I know it's probably not worth pursuing, but just curious.

Mike Nolan

Well, first the sequential dropoff of 9% is just a little beyond our normal seasonal number. We've seen that running at about 7.5% for the last five years. And so 9% is not way outside of that number. But my instinct is that we are seeing a little bit more than the seasonal effect because of the rate movement that we saw, particularly in September, but it can change quickly. And as I said, the 10-year has come down 50 basis points in the last 30 days, let's say. The daily rate is down to, I think, under 7.2%. It was at 7.6% on September 30.

So these things can change quickly. And we still believe there's a lot of underlying demand for housing. And as rates ease, transactions, sales, and refinances will follow. So we'll just have to manage as we always do based on the environment that we're in at the moment.

Mark Hughes

Yes. And then if I could, a question just kind of very high level on F&G, and I did listen to the call this morning. Their assets under management are pretty stable year-over-year. They've been pretty active using reinsurance. The gross sales have been quite strong, but they've been focusing more on capital efficiency.

When we think over the next year, if gross sales continue to be strong, as you see the business, is that the approach that will continue that the assets under management reasonably stable, use refi, return capital? Is that the kind of the broader strategy?

Anthony Park

Thanks, Mark. This is Tony. I may turn part of this over to the F&G team. They're in the room and are better equipped than I to handle it. But yes, the focus has been on really selling into the channels that make the most sense from a capital and an earnings perspective. And at this point, reinsurance has been a very opportune area, especially on the MYGA side. And with the focus on capital-light and earning -- own distribution and maximizing our earnings results, I think that growing that gross number and that net number more modestly, I think, is where we intend to go.

I mean in terms of F&G and if you listened to the call this morning, you heard they had a very strong quarter. I think it was the strongest core retail sales that we've ever seen for a particular quarter at $2.1 billion. That part has been very, very welcome. And really, the performance overall from F&G has been very strong over the six years under our ownership.

And the challenge, the elephant in the room, so to speak, that we all see is valuation and the fact that we have an asset here that with $6.7 billion in GAAP book value that's performing very well, and yet we just don't see that valued in F&G's share price or, frankly, in FNF's share price. And so that's a continued frustration that we're dealing with and working to improve, but that's kind of where that stands. I don't know, guys, if you wanted to add anything to that.

Michael Bailey

This is Mike Bailey. I will just state that, I think everything that Tony said is accurate. We certainly do rely on flow reinsurance as part of our capital-light fee-based strategy. We do expect to see high single-digit growth in gross AUM, and we expect to see low single-digit growth on a net AUM basis. It's important to note when comparing to the year ago period, that the year ago period includes FG Life Re, which was our Bermuda entity, and that entity was sold earlier this year. That was $1.8 billion of assets under management that kind of came out of that number. So normalizing for that sale and the monetization of that property certainly puts us back within those trends that we're targeting.

Conor Murphy

Yes. And this is Conor. Let me add as well, like from the FG perspective, we're not satisfied, and we recognize that we're being undervalued, but there's a lot of ways that we can unlock that value within the four walls, if you will, and we're focused on the optimal ways to do that in the coming quarters.

Operator

Our next question is from Oscar Nieves with Stephens Inc.

Oscar Nieves Santana

I wanted to start with next year. You've said you don't manage to an outlook. But if we think about 2027, can you help us frame revenue and the Title margin? And where does the operating leverage show up if the market is flat? And also how personnel, tech and recruiting costs could potentially offset that?

Mike Nolan

Well, I would say in terms of expectations, we expect commercial to remain very strong. As I said before, we're optimistic that we could get a better rate environment, which will add transactions to the mix. And we're layering AI and technology that will enhance productivity over time. So those are all drivers of better outcomes for the business.

If we get a weaker environment and there's less transactions, there's always levers that we can use to make sure we're protecting our margins as we've always done. And that includes having to make the company smaller, and we've shown that over time and also grow market share, which is why we're focused on things like recruiting and acquisitions. So there's never one thing, Oscar, and we're looking at all of these things all the time and continue to deliver, as we said before, regardless of the environment, the best margins in the industry.

Oscar Nieves Santana

And following up on that point of recruiting and M&A, can you share how many people you've added? I know you guys include the field operations staff numbers in the release, but if you can give us a sense of overall hiring at the company level.

Mike Nolan

Yes. I would say in the third quarter, we had about 300 from the acquisition and the recruiting. If you look at the release, we showed a net 100 addition in title direct staffing. So we've already begun some staff reductions, and we'll evaluate those in the fourth quarter. For the year, I don't know how many we've had with acquisitions for the year. Tony, I don't know if you have that number.

Anthony Park

I felt like what I heard was, was the number of 600 that was equally offset by just recruiting or was that a...

Mike Nolan

Thanks for that reminder. Yes, Oscar, I think it was -- I think we added about 600 this year just from recruiting and acquisitions. And really, it makes up the adds we've made in the title direct footprint for the year. We're not really adding people for productivity. We're really going after revenue and building not only for now, but for the longer term.

Oscar Nieves Santana

Okay. Helpful. And on the M&A point, can you share anything incremental on the prices that you're paying on those deals that you just alluded to?

Anthony Park

Yes, it's really, Oscar. It's in the same ballpark that we've always done for tuck-in title acquisitions, which is somewhere between 4x and 6x pretax earnings, and that's been consistent.

Oscar Nieves Santana

Okay. My last one is and it's on capital. Holding company cash is down since year-end. And you mentioned earlier that buybacks were light because of the closed window and you just raised the dividend. I'm curious like do you guys have a minimum level of cash that you target? And how do you set buybacks against the dividend, the tuck-ins and debt given all that, the outlook and all these moving parts?

Anthony Park

Yes. Great. Thanks for the question. Yes, we did grow cash during the quarter, but we're at about 83% of the balance that we started the year with. So we added about $100 million or so in cash in the quarter. We were closed to buybacks in the quarter because of a blackout. But we have plenty of cash, $550 million. We generate strong cash flow. So we balance certainly the dividend, and we did raise the dividend. Thank you for calling that out. But the dividend is part of our use, but we still have a lot of cash.

Beyond that, we look at buybacks and M&A opportunistically. We certainly believe that with our shares trading where they are, that it's a great use of capital. And when our blackout is lifted, I would expect us to be aggressive in that area. In terms of your initial question, do we have a minimum number? I don't know that we have a minimum number. I would say $100 million to $200 million is probably a comfortable to have at holding company level.

But again, keep in mind that we generate at the low end in a particular year, $800 million that gets upstreamed to Holdco. And in a strong year, it might be $1.3 billion, $1.4 billion in that range. And so we do have a lot of cash generation to fund the regular needs, which would be primarily the dividend and then to a much smaller extent, the interest expense.

Operator

There are no further questions at this time. This will conclude our question-and-answer session. I will now turn the conference back over to CEO, Mike Nolan, for closing remarks.

Mike Nolan

Thanks for joining our call this morning. We delivered strong third quarter results with our complementary businesses executing well in a dynamic environment. We appreciate your interest in FNF and look forward to updating you on our fourth quarter earnings call.

Operator

Thank you for attending today's presentation. The conference call has concluded. You may now disconnect.