Fidelity Posts a 4th Quarter Loss of $44.9 Million

Press release here.  The reserves for claims is the most interesting:

These reported results include the impact of a $135.7 million charge to strengthen the reserve for claim losses.

That’s putting away a lot of “acorns” for the coming winter, considering that’s double the reserve taken in the prior two quarters.   It looks like the tide is still rising:

We did find it necessary to strengthen our reserve for claim losses as we continued to experience adverse loss development in the fourth quarter, particularly for policy years 2005-2007, as the expected ultimate loss ratio for those policy years worsened to approximately 7.5% during the fourth quarter.

On the positive side, they are still paying a dividend:

Fidelity National Financial, Inc. (NYSE: FNF – News), a leading provider of title insurance, specialty insurance, claims management services and information services, today announced that its Board of Directors has declared a quarterly cash dividend of $0.30 per share. The dividend will be payable March 27, 2008, to stockholders of record as of March 13, 2008.