Topic: How To Invest

Hello Pat. I would appreciate your opinion on Radian Group.

Article Excerpt

Radian Group, $10.45, symbol RDN on New York (Shares outstanding: 82.8 million; Market cap: $864.2 million), sells mortgage insurance and similar products and services to mortgage lenders across the U.S. The company sells its products through its main subsidiary, Radian Guaranty Inc. Radian’s products and services help protect lenders from default-related losses on residential first mortgages. They also facilitate the sale of riskier low-down-payment mortgages in the secondary market. Radian lost $5.12 a share in 2008, but cut its loss to $1.80 a share in 2009. Much of the 2009 loss occurred in the final three months of the year, when Radian lost $1.12 a share, a big improvement over the year-earlier quarterly loss of $3.11 a share. That fourth quarter 2009 loss beat the $1.69 a share loss that analysts were expecting, and Radian’s share price rose as a result. The loss shrank due to a lower rate of new delinquencies at its mortgage-insurance business. Radian has cut its exposure to…