You've probably seen the ticker. GNW. It sits there on the NYSE, often trading for less than the price of a decent burrito, and it drives people absolutely crazy. If you’re looking at the Genworth Financial stock price today, you’re seeing it hover around $8.49—down about 3.5% just yesterday. It’s been a bit of a slide lately, three days of red in a row, actually.
But here’s the thing. Most people look at that single-digit number and assume the company is circling the drain. They remember the long-term care (LTC) insurance nightmare of the 2010s. They remember the botched China Oceanwide merger that dragged on for years like a bad soap opera before finally collapsing. Honestly, if you only look at the history, you’d never touch this stock.
But the "old" Genworth isn't exactly the "new" Genworth.
Why the Genworth Financial stock price is stuck in the mud
Markets hate uncertainty. And Genworth is basically a giant ball of it wrapped in an insurance contract. The biggest weight on the Genworth Financial stock price is the legacy long-term care business. For years, Genworth (and the rest of the industry) sold policies based on math that just didn't work. People lived longer than expected. Care got way more expensive.
To fix it, Genworth has been in a decade-long battle to raise premiums. They’ve actually been pretty successful at it, securing about $31.8 billion in net present value from rate actions since 2012. That’s a massive number. But every time they ask for a rate hike, it reminds investors that the "tail risk"—the chance of a massive, company-killing wave of claims—is still lurking in the basement.
Then there's the AXA litigation. It’s been a dark cloud for a while. Just recently, in October 2025, there was news about UK court approvals for appeals related to Santander, which is tied into that whole mess. When you have hundreds of millions of dollars tied up in "who-owes-who" legal fights, big institutional investors tend to look elsewhere.
The Enact Factor: The tail wagging the dog
If Genworth were just an LTC company, the stock might be worth zero. But it’s not. It owns the lion's share of Enact Holdings (ACT).
Enact is a mortgage insurance powerhouse. While Genworth's stock is grinding along, Enact just hit a 52-week high of $41.29 last week. It’s a cash cow. In the third quarter of 2025, Enact funneled $110 million in capital back to Genworth. Basically, Enact is the reliable roommate who pays the rent while Genworth tries to figure out its life.
Investors are constantly doing the "sum-of-the-parts" math. If you look at the value of Genworth’s stake in Enact, it’s often worth more than the entire market cap of Genworth itself. That's a classic value trap—or a massive opportunity, depending on how much you trust management.
Buybacks and the 2026 outlook
Management knows the stock is cheap. They’ve been shouting it from the rooftops by buying back shares. In late 2025, the board authorized a new $350 million share repurchase program. They already bought back $151 million worth of stock in the first nine months of 2025.
When a company buys back its own stock at $8 or $9 a share, and the book value is significantly higher (it was trading at a price-to-book of around 0.41 mid-last year), it’s usually a signal. They’re trying to manufacture value because the market won't give it to them.
What to watch for in February 2026
We’ve got a big date coming up. Genworth is scheduled to drop its Q4 2025 earnings on February 23, 2026, with a conference call the next morning.
Here is what actually matters for the stock price:
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- The CareScout Progress: They’ve been pivoting hard into "CareScout," which is their attempt to turn LTC from a money-losing insurance product into a profitable service business. They even acquired a platform called Seniorly in October to speed this up.
- LTC Claims Trends: If claims are higher than expected, the stock will tank. Period.
- The Buyback Pace: If they aggressiveley used that $350 million authorization in Q4, it provides a floor for the price.
Is it a "Value" or a "Trap"?
It’s easy to get lured in by the low P/E ratio (currently around 16.1) and the low price-to-book. But you have to realize that 87% of this stock is owned by institutions. These are the big boys—pension funds and hedge funds. They aren't moving the needle because they’re waiting for the LTC "closed system" to prove it can survive without more help.
Honestly, Genworth is a bet on two things: that the US housing market stays strong enough for Enact to keep printing money, and that the "CareScout" pivot actually works. If CareScout becomes the "Amazon of aging," this stock is a steal. If it's just a fancy website for a dying business model, the stock will stay in the single digits forever.
Actionable Insights for Investors
If you're holding or watching GNW, don't get distracted by the daily noise. The 3.5% drop yesterday is just noise in a volatile sector.
- Watch the Enact (ACT) stock price. Since Genworth owns most of it, any major swing in mortgage insurance directly impacts Genworth’s "real" value.
- Keep an eye on interest rates. Higher rates are actually good for insurers because they earn more on the billions of dollars they hold in reserve.
- Don't ignore the legal updates. Any settlement or finality regarding the AXA/Santander litigation could remove a massive psychological barrier for the stock.
- Check the RBC ratio. The Risk-Based Capital ratio for their life insurance subsidiaries was around 303% in late 2025. If that number starts dipping toward 200%, the regulators get nervous, and the stock will follow.
The Genworth Financial stock price isn't going to double overnight. It's a "show me" story. Until management proves that the legacy LTC dragon is truly slain, the market is going to keep it on a very short leash.
Next Steps for Your Portfolio Analysis
To get a clearer picture of whether Genworth fits your risk profile, you should compare the current market capitalization against the market value of their 81% ownership in Enact Holdings. If the "stub" (the value of the rest of Genworth) is trading at a negative value, you're looking at a classic arbitrage setup. Additionally, mark February 24, 2026, on your calendar; the Q4 earnings call will be the first real look at how the Seniorly acquisition is integrating into the CareScout ecosystem.