Mortgage insurance provider Radian Group (NYSE: RDN) reported Q1 CY2026 results beating Wall Street’s revenue expectations, with sales up 46% year on year to $466.3 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $1.27 per share was 5.7% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

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“This quarter marks a defining milestone for Radian, our first as a global multi-line specialty insurer following the successful acquisition of Inigo. By uniting two world-class insurance businesses, we have created a more diversified and resilient enterprise, as reflected in our exceptional first quarter results,” said Radian Chief Executive Officer Rick Thornberry.

Company Overview

Founded during the housing boom of 1977 and weathering multiple real estate cycles since, Radian Group (NYSE: RDN) provides mortgage insurance and real estate services, helping lenders manage risk and homebuyers achieve affordable homeownership.

Revenue Growth

Insurance companies earn revenue from three primary sources: 1) The core insurance business itself, often called underwriting and represented in the income statement as premiums 2) Income from investing the “float” (premiums collected upfront not yet paid out as claims) in assets such as fixed-income assets and equities 3) Fees from various sources such as policy administration, annuities, or other value-added services. Unfortunately, Radian Group struggled to consistently increase demand as its $1.38 billion of revenue for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue five years ago. This wasn’t a great result and is a poor baseline for our analysis.

We at StockStory place the most emphasis on long-term growth, but within financials, a half-decade historical view may miss recent interest rate changes, market returns, and industry trends. Radian Group’s annualized revenue growth of 4.1% over the last two years is above its five-year trend, which is encouraging. Note: Quarters not shown were determined to be outliers, impacted by outsized investment gains/losses that are not indicative of the recurring fundamentals of the business.

This quarter, Radian Group reported magnificent year-on-year revenue growth of 46%, and its $466.3 million of revenue beat Wall Street’s estimates by 10.7%.

Net premiums earned made up 69.6% of the company’s total revenue during the last five years, meaning insurance operations are Radian Group’s largest source of revenue.

Our experience and research show the market cares primarily about an insurer’s net premiums earned growth as investment and fee income are considered more susceptible to market volatility and economic cycles.

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Book Value Per Share (BVPS)

Insurance companies are balance sheet businesses, collecting premiums upfront and paying out claims over time. The float–premiums collected but not yet paid out–are invested, creating an asset base supported by a liability structure. Book value per share (BVPS) captures this dynamic by measuring these assets (investment portfolio, cash, reinsurance recoverables) less liabilities (claim reserves, debt, future policy benefits). BVPS is essentially the residual value for shareholders.

We therefore consider BVPS very important to track for insurers and a metric that sheds light on business quality because it reflects long-term capital growth and is harder to manipulate than more commonly-used metrics like EPS.

Radian Group’s BVPS grew at a solid 10% annual clip over the last five years. The last two years show a similar trajectory as BVPS grew by 10.3% annually from $29.30 to $35.67 per share.

Key Takeaways from Radian Group’s Q1 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Radian Group blew past analysts’ revenue expectations this quarter. Overall, we think this was a solid quarter with some key areas of upside. The stock remained flat at $35.73 immediately after reporting.

Is Radian Group an attractive investment opportunity right now? If you’re making that decision, you should consider the bigger picture of valuation, business qualities, as well as the latest earnings. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).