Byron Boston
Analyst · KBW. Please go ahead
Thank you, Alison. Good morning and thank you all so much for joining our call. Let me start the call with a brief mention of Dave Walrod, who passed away last month. Dave was a sell-side analyst with Jones Trading, and prior to that with Ladenburg Thalmann and JP Morgan. Dave was a friend of the company. And his good nature, insights and friendship will be missed by all of us here at Dynex. As I typically do, I will refer to the slide deck on our website, at www.dynexcapital.com, throughout this presentation. I encourage you to review the deck in its entirety. The presentation includes information intended to help our investors understand how we're thinking about the global macro environment, the return environment, our current portfolio construction, our earnings trajectory and the risks that we have chosen to take to generate income for our shareholders. Now, let's turn to Slide 3 and look at our results. Our performance during the first quarter was solid as markets rallied and volatility ebbed in sharp contrast to the fourth quarter. The low volatility environment allowed us to modestly increase leverage and regain a portion of our book value per common share lost in the volatility at the end of 2018. As noted on Slide 3, for the quarter we posted a total economic return of 6.7%, comprehensive income of $0.46 per common share and core net operating income of $0.18. Book value increased 3.7% to $6.24 per common share, led by tighter Agency CMBS spreads, and to a lesser extent, Agency RMBS and CMBS IO spreads. Adjusted net interest spread declined 5 basis points during the quarter to 1.19%, from lower drop income on TBAs and the spread between three month LIBOR and repo rates. Let's see. Overall, our investment portfolio inclusive of TBAs grew to $5.5 billion from $4.7 billion reflecting due to deployment of the capital raise during the quarter. And we added more Agency CMBS securities during the quarter and the mix between resi securities and commercial securities was approximately [a60/40 or close to 60-37%] [ph] at the end of the quarter. Now, let's turn to Slide 4 and 5. And let me remind you that we take a top-down approach to the markets by taking a very disciplined approach to forming a global macro-view of the economy and market, and then working our way down to our individual bond selection for our portfolio. And as you can see here on Slide 4, it contain of our global view as best expressed, which we have lifted from the World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report for 2019. The picture looks very complicated, but it is very reflective of the world in which we currently find ourselves. My favorite line in this report simply states that global risks are intensifying as the world is facing a growing number of complex and interconnected challenges. Now, look at Slide 5. In a world growing - in this world of growing uncertainty and intensifying global risk, we at Dynex believe that generating cash income from United States real estate related assets and the United States housing finance system is the most attractive investment in global capital markets today. In our opinion, the optimal portfolio for the environment is a diversified pool of highly liquid mortgage investments with minimal credit risk. Given our view of the environment, we believe long-term investors should seek and favor experienced management teams and Dynex brings significant experience and expertise in managing securitized real estate assets through multiple economic cycles. And then finally, investors should focus on the long-term, as we always have here at Dynex and the long-term total returns of mortgage REITs. Dynex Capital and the mortgage REIT industry as a whole offer good long-term returns both in our preferred stock and common equity, high-single-digit to low-teen returns and otherwise low global return in environment, with tons of negative yielding debt, and central bank holding up prices of other risky assets. Now look at our key takeaways slide on Slide 6 and 7. The current inverted structure of the interest rate curve is unusual, and has historically lasted six to nine months. In the near-term, our returns will be impacted by a couple of factors: three months LIBOR; one-month repo spreads; and prepayments. These factors may be a headwind to earnings. Now look at Slide 7. Our long-term returns that we have talked about multiple times in the past, continues to support our business model. Demographics support a growing demand for cash yield in addition to the fact that we just mentioned the amount of low yielding assets globally. There is a need for private capital in the U.S. housing finance system as the Federal Reserve attempts to reduce its investment in Agency RMBS and GSE reform may create new investment opportunities. We've stated many times that given our view of this environment, we believe long-term investors should seek all of the higher yields offered by the mortgage REIT environment. And we continue to think from a long-term perspective, a Dynex and we look beyond the short-term impacts that we see today that may pressure our earnings. So please turn to Slide 14 to 17. We're skipping over our macro view, which is outlined two slides 8 to 13, it's exactly as outlined a couple of months. And you can - it's fully outlined in our document. And if you look at Slide 14, unless discuss our portfolio construction will focus on prepayment risk, leverage and liquidity. Our portfolio is constructed for interest rates trading within a narrower historical range, as this explained in our macro view. Approximately 40% of our portfolio is invested in commercial mortgage-backed securities, which offer the ultimate and prepayment protection. While 60% of our portfolio was invested in residential securities, or 90% of our investments have prepayment protection in the form of loan characteristics that limit the incentive to refinance. Characteristics such as: lower balance loans; high LTV loans; geographic specific loans; and loans with low weighted average note rates. The other point I want to reiterate about our portfolio construction is that we are very comfortable. In this global environment using higher leverage on highly liquid high credit assets, especially given the durability of the financing markets. Our portfolio construction also allows us to flexibility to rapidly pivot to other opportunities when they arise. And then finally, let's turn to Slide 19. This is where we end all of our calls, we like this long-term chart, we emphasize the fact that we are focused on the long-term. You can take note that we made a change in this slide by including maybe S&P 500 financials, which you compared to other quarters, you will see the S&P 500 as a whole, there is nothing unusual in terms of where that line sits versus the other three. But we really want to point out that for those of you who do have a requirement to be exposed the financials. You can see the relative attractiveness of holding Dynex Capital over the last 12 years or so, relative to the overall S&P 500 financials index. So as we said again, I want to just reiterate. We believe that the mortgage REIT just factor in best in Dynex Capital offer attractive long-term return both in our preferred stock and our common stock. We bring to the table with very experience management team. Our portfolio is constructed for what we consider to be a lower narrower range than we have historically seen. In interest rates, it's diversified between commercial securities and residential securities. We appreciate you joining our call today. And we are opening the call for questions.