First National Financial (FNF) Seems to be Turning the Corner

I've been looking at ways to play the "impending" housing recovery without touching housing related retailers or home builders. One such name is Ocwen Financial (OCN) which we discussed yesterday [Feb 3: Freddie Mac to Outsource Delinquent Collections -Ocwen Financial Chosen to Start]. I also mentioned the title insurer stocks in late December [Dec 26: Ways to Play the Housing Boom - Title Insurers]

I have been struggling to find ways to play the refinance "boom" outside of Bankrate.com (RATE) which we mentioned December 3rd [Dec 3: Mortgage Applications Spike to Record] While I believe purchases of homes (ex - foreclosures) will continue to disappoint bulls, along with the % of refinance applications actually being approved - 5%, 4.5% and potentially even lower interest rates that the government will eventually take us to are going to have some effects. Foreclosure are now close to 1 in 2 sales in the entire country so at 50%+ listed price some volume of sales should occur.

• Insurance provider Fidelity National Financial Inc. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter loss narrowed and it cut 1,500 jobs related to an acquisition. The company, which provides title-related services, said its quarterly loss narrowed to $1.7 million, or a penny per share, from a loss of $44.9 million, or 21 cents per share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters, on average, predicted a loss of 3 cents per share.
• Revenue fell 21 percent to $1.02 billion from $1.3 billion last year. Wall Street had expected revenue of $995.6 million.
• However, the company said open order counts more than doubled in December compared with November, and order counts in January improved significantly as well. (that's what the stock was "telling us") The company said the rebound in order counts and the acquisition will likely boost results in 2009.
• Absolute total open order counts more than doubled in December versus their November level, with per day open orders of 9,300 increasing by approximately 65 percent. January open order counts improved further from the significant December increase, as we opened approximately 14,200 orders per day in the month of January, more than a fifty percent increase over December.
• Jacksonville, Fla.-based Fidelity National said it would acquire LandAmerica Financial Group Inc. last year, but that company filed for bankruptcy protection in late November. Instead, it bought LandAmerica's Commonwealth Land Title, Lawyers Title and Unit Capital Title units for about $298 million in a deal that closed in December. Wednesday, Fidelity National said in January it cut 1,500 of the 5,500 staffers and closed 125 offices it inherited from the transaction in an effort to cut costs.