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PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust (PMT)

Q4 2019 Earnings Call· Thu, Feb 6, 2020

$12.17

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Transcript

Isaac Garden

Management

Good afternoon, and welcome to the Fourth Quarter Earnings Discussion for PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust. The slides that accompany this discussion are available from PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust’s 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 introduce Stan Kurland, PMT’s Executive Chairman.

Stan Kurland

Management

Thank you, Isaac. Before I turn it over to David, who will lead the earnings review going forward, I’d like to make a few high-level comments. I am pleased to note that PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust was among the best performing residential mortgage REITs in 2019. I am also pleased to note that since its inception over 10 years ago, PMT has delivered an outstanding annualized return to common shareholders of 12%, driven by its unique business model and investment strategies in residential mortgages.I am confident that as I begin to transition away from my day to day operational responsibilities at PennyMac Financial, PMT’s manager and services provider, this highly‐experienced management team and synergistic relationship will continue to drive attractive risk‐adjusted returns to shareholders.Now let’s turn it over to David Spector, PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust’s President and Chief Executive Officer to discuss the Company’s fourth quarter and full‐year 2019 results.

David Spector

Management

Thank you, Stan. Let’s begin with Slide three. PMT reported net income attributable to common shareholders of $52.4 million, or $0.55 per share, representing an annualized return on average common equity of 10%.Book value per common share increased to $21.37 at year end up from $21.14 at September 30th, and PMT paid a dividend of $0.47 per share for the quarter. PMT reports results drew four segments: Credit Sensitive Strategies, which contributed $38.9 million in pretax income; Interest Rate Sensitive Strategies, which contributed $12.3 million; Correspondent Production, which contributed $23 million; and Corporate, with a pretax loss of $15 million.Our results this quarter reflect a continued strong performance from our GSE credit risk transfer investments, an increased income contribution from the Correspondent Production segment, and improved performance from our Interest Rate Sensitive Strategies despite elevated hedge costs driven by continued interest rate volatility.PMT continued its strong pace of capital investment this quarter, driven by record conventional acquisition volumes totaling $22.7 billion in unpaid principal balance. We delivered CRT‐eligible loans of $16.6 billion in UPB to Fannie Mae, which resulted in a firm commitment to purchase $655 million of CRT securities.New MSR investments for the quarter totaled $303 million. Continuing onto Slide four, in November, PMT expanded its capital structure in support of continued growth with the private placement of $210 million of senior exchangeable notes at attractive terms.In addition, PMT’s strong performance and outlook for continued investment opportunities drove the successful issuance of 9.2 million common shares in an underwritten equity offering, providing $201million in new common equity. And, through our “At‐The‐Market” equity offering program, we sold an additional 637,000 common shares, for $14 million in net proceeds.For the full year, PMT raised $830 million in new common equity driven by strong share price performance and increased investment opportunities. I…

Vandy Fartaj

Management

Thank you, David. Let’s begin with Slide nine for a look at our Correspondent Production highlights. Correspondent acquisitions by PMT from non-affiliated sellers in the fourth quarter totaled $37.7 billion in UPB, up 20% from the prior quarter and 109% year-over-year. 55% of our acquisitions were conventional loans, and 45% were government loans.Conventional correspondent acquisitions totaled $20.5 billion in UPB, up 23% from the prior quarter and 127% from the fourth quarter of 2018. Government loan acquisitions in the quarter, for which PMT earns a sourcing fee from PennyMac Financial, totaled $16.7 billion in UPB, up 16% from the prior quarter and 87% from the fourth quarter of 2018.As part of its correspondent loan acquisitions, PMT also acquired conventional loans originated by PFSI totaling $1.7 billion in UPB, up from $1.4 billion in the prior quarter. These loans were originated through PFSI’s consumer and broker direct lending channels, and PennyMac Financial remains PMT’s largest single correspondent client.Combined, conventional lock volume totaled $19.7 billion in UPB, up 1% from the prior quarter and 105% from the fourth quarter of 2018. According to Inside Mortgage Finance, our record acquisition volumes made PennyMac the largest correspondent aggregator in the United States for the second consecutive quarter, reflecting an improved environment and less aggressive competition from the banks who have historically dominated this channel.Still, the conventional correspondent market remains competitive and margins were stable in comparison to the prior quarter. The weighted average fulfillment fee paid to PFSI to facilitate correspondent loan production was 28 basis points, up slightly from 27 basis points in the previous quarter.Purchase‐money loans accounted for 55% of total acquisition volume, which we believe is a significantly larger percentage than the overall origination market. The number of approved correspondent sellers in our network also continued to rise, to nearly 800…

Andy Chang

Management

Thank you, Vandy. Let’s turn to Slide 14 and discuss the fourth quarter’s income and return contributions by strategy. PMT’s activities in the fourth quarter generated an annualized return on common equity of 10%, net of all expenses.In total, Credit Sensitive Strategies contributed $38.9 million to pretax income, or a 25% annualized return on equity for the quarter. Within the segment, CRT investments contributed pretax income of $43 million, which I will expand upon later.Distressed loan and REO investments contributed a $3.7 million pretax loss, primarily driven by holding costs on the remaining REO. Interest Rate Sensitive Strategies, which include the performance of our MSRs, ESS and Agency and non‐Agency senior MBS positions, and related interest rate hedges, together contributed a pretax income of $12.3 million, or a 5% annualized return on equity for the quarter.Improved segment results were primarily driven by fair value gains and higher servicing fee income from a larger MSR asset, and were offset by fair value losses on our interest rate hedges. While we show the income contribution for each of these interest rate sensitive strategies separately, they are managed together as the interest rate sensitivity of the MSRs and ESS is inversely correlated to that of the MBS and our other interest rate hedges. I will discuss this in more detail on the following slide.Correspondent Production contributed $23 million to pretax income, or a 15% annualized return on equity for the quarter, driven by record production volumes. The Corporate segment contributed a pretax loss of $15 million.And finally, we recorded $700,000 in income tax expense. Now let’s turn to slide 15 to further discuss the impact of interest rate movements on our fourth quarter results. PMT seeks to manage its interest rate exposure on a global basis, recognizing interest rate sensitivities that exist across…

David Spector

Management

Thank you, Andy. Strong financial performance in the fourth quarter and for the full year 2019 was driven by our unique credit risk transfer investments, record conventional production volumes in our correspondent business and disciplined hedging of mortgage servicing rights.We create organic CRT investments through our leading correspondent production business, which delivered approximately $60 billion in UPB of loans to the GSEs this year, resulting in new CRT investments of over $1.8 billion.In light of our investment outlook, in the fourth quarter we expanded PMT’s capital structure with the private placement of $210 million of senior exchangeable notes and the issuance of additional common equity, bringing the total equity raised in 2019 to over $800 million to support continued capital deployment into CRT and MSR investments that we believe are accretive to PMT’s overall investment returns.Lastly, we encourage investors with any questions to reach out to our Investor Relations team by email or phone. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

This concludes PennyMac Mortgage Investment Trust’s fourth 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.