Earnings Labs

PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT)

Q3 2015 Earnings Call· Thu, Nov 5, 2015

$12.17

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good afternoon and welcome to the third quarter 2015 earnings discussion for PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust. The slides that accompany this discussion are available from the PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust website at www.pennymac-reit.com. Before we begin, please take a few moments to read the disclaimer on slide two of the presentation. Thank you. Now I’d like to turn the discussion over to Stan Kurland, PMT’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

Stanford Kurland

Management

Thank you, Chris. PMT’s third quarter earnings were consistent with our expectations from the present investment portfolio. This quarter’s results benefited from improved performance in our distressed loan investments, correspondent production and our interest rate sensitive strategies as well. For the third quarter, PMT earned a total of $38.8 million in net income, or $0.49 per diluted share, representing an annualized return on equity of 10%. PMT paid a dividend of $0.47 per share for the quarter, and book value per share increased to $20.52 at quarter-end. PMT reports results through two segments: Investment Activities and Correspondent Production. The Investment Activities segment reported $34.9 million in pre-tax income. Segment results were driven by higher gains and interest income from the distressed mortgage loans and improved performance of the interest rate sensitive strategies. We invested $84 million in excess servicing spread on bulk, minibulk and flow acquisitions of Agency MSRs acquired by PennyMac Financial relating to $10 billion in UPB. We also completed a $40 million investment in our inaugural credit risk transfer transaction with Fannie Mae on $1.2 billion of PMT’s production and launched a second transaction expected to total $4 billion of PMT’s production. The Correspondent Production segment earned $10.2 million in pre-tax income. Correspondent loan acquisitions totaled $14.4 billion during the third quarter, up 21% from the second quarter. New investments in MSRs from our correspondent production activities totaled $53 million. In total, the value of PMT’s MSR and ESS investments grew to $842 million, relating to $94 billion of UPB, at the end of the quarter. Finally, we repurchased $16 million of PMT’s common shares, which represents 11$ of the $150 million authorized under the share repurchase program we announced during the quarter. On slide four, I would like to highlight the transition in the mix of…

David Spector

Management

Thank you, Stan. Let’s turn to slide 11 and discuss PMT’s distressed whole loan portfolio. The slide shows where PMT’s distressed loan portfolio was valued as of September 30th, split between nonperforming and performing loans in the distressed portfolio. The bars on the right, in blue, are the outstanding principal balance, or face value, of the loans. The green bars in the middle show the estimate of the current collateral value, or the current value of the properties underlying the loans. We use several methods to estimate the current value of the properties, but they are primarily based on broker price opinions. The bars on the left, in gray, are our fair value marks for the assets as recorded on PMT’s balance sheet. What you will note is that the fair value of the loans held by PMT is significantly lower than the value of the underlying properties. The mark on the nonperforming loans is held on average at a 30% discount to current property value while the mark on the performing loans is held on average at a 31% discount to current property value. This embedded value is generally realized over time through a variety of loan resolution strategies we pursue, which are executed by the servicing operations of PFSI. In the case of nonperforming loans, valuation gains are recorded as each loan progresses closer to liquidation or is rehabilitated to a reperforming loan. Performing loans also have a significant embedded value, but their resolution options differ and include restructure through modifications and refinance strategies. Many of PMT’s performing loans were acquired as nonperforming loans and were brought back to performing status through successful servicing activities which may have included a loan modification. Reperforming loans can continue to be held in our portfolio and earn interest income as the…

Anne McCallion

Management

Thank you, David. On slide 16 we show the pre-tax earnings contribution from each of PMT’s segments over the last five quarters. In the third quarter of 2015, PMT’s pre-tax earnings totaled $45.1 million, comprised of $34.9 million of pre-tax income from Investment Activities and $10.2 million of pre-tax income from Correspondent Production. Now let’s turn to slide 17 and look at the results of the Investment Activities segment. The Investment Activities segment income is derived from the performance of PMT’s investment portfolio. In the third quarter, segment revenues totaled $60.4 million, up 28% from the second quarter. The quarter-over-quarter increase in revenues was driven primarily by an increase in interest income and higher net loan servicing fees. Net gain on investments in the third quarter included valuation gains on distressed loans of $31.9 million, a 6% increase from the second quarter. We strategically manage our overall interest rate exposure through a variety of strategies which include offsetting interest rate sensitivities. These strategies include mortgage servicing rights, excess servicing spread and Agency and non-Agency mortgage backed securities. The net impact of valuation changes on ESS, Agency MBS and non-Agency MBS was a $7 million loss during the quarter. ESS and non-Agency MBS had valuation losses totaling $10.2 million, while Agency MBS had a valuation gain of $3.2 million during the quarter. Valuation losses on ESS resulted from higher projected prepayment activity on the loans underlying the investment, driven by lower interest rates during the quarter, partially offset by increased recapture income. Recapture income paid to PMT by PennyMac Financial from recapture on loans underlying the ESS totaled $2.4 million for the third quarter, up from $1.5 million last quarter. Net interest income increased 43% quarter over quarter, which I will discuss in greater detail later in my presentation. Net loan…

Stanford Kurland

Management

Thank you, Anne. PMT’s improved financial performance in the third quarter reflects our focus on maximizing returns from existing investments and deploying capital in unique mortgage-related strategies. We are allocating capital to investments in mortgage servicing rights, GSE credit risk transfer transactions and other mortgage-related securities as opportunities for investing in distressed mortgage loans are diminished. We believe that these strategies will also improve the predictability of PMT’s earnings and drive increased shareholder value over time. In closing, we encourage investors with any questions to reach out to our Investor Relations team by email or phone. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes the PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust third quarter earnings discussion. For any questions, please visit our website at www.pennymac-reit.com, or call our investor relations department at 818-224-7028. Thank you.