Angel Oak Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE:AOMR) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Brandon Filson: Yeah. Like we said last quarter when we did the cut from 45 to 32, we thought when we looked out at the opportunity set for 2023 that 32 would have been a sustainable level that we could maintain comfortably throughout, at least throughout the 12 months period. Always subject to review and analysis, but we are still comfortable with that as well. Like I said, when we did this last securitization, it’ll function like our pre-IPO deals where we just retained bonds. And those bonds themselves that we retained have a go forward expected yield of between 10% and 15%. So that the discount that we inherently had because of the loans marking down is basically behind us and now it’s going to be a good return. Then as we start buying the new loans, building back that NIM, it looks relatively good on the out couple of quarters this year, especially like, as Sreeni said, we’re almost through or through a lot of the lower coupon loans.

The risk of margin calls is significantly reduced. Let me just put some numbers around it. Sreeni mentioned we have about $140 million on our mark-to-market facility, but that’s down from about $1.1 billion Q1 of €˜22. So the risk is, I mean, it’s not zero, but it’s significantly less than it has been in the year.

Don Fandetti: Got it. Thanks.

Operator: Thank you. The next question comes from Matthew Howlett from B. Riley. Please proceed with your question, Matthew.

Matthew Howlett: Thanks. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for taking my question. Guys, the first, do you address the potential or the opportunity to repurchase stock here at 50% of the economic book value. Am I recognized the — you’re paying down the warehouse line, the focus on liquidity. Maybe if you could give us the unrestricted cash position today. But in terms of looking at buying new loans going forward versus buying back the stock, how do you feel — how do you look at that analysis?

Brandon Filson: Yeah. No, I think we are looking at that analysis. We’ve continued to look at that analysis. There — nothing has been decided today on that. We believe at this point where we have and look at future returns. Obviously, we have a point in time today that looks like you’ve got a large dividend yield, you take an immediate return, if you will, because we repurchased shares. But at the same time, that is going to shrink the size of this company. We’ve had — we’ve gone from about $500 million in equity capital base to $235 million today. So we don’t want to necessarily shrink it anymore, also keep the float up in the stock to help with trading. But again, we’re evaluating that and we’ll see where it goes. So unrestricted cash today is about $30 million but that is — and then we also have about another $60 million of unlevered assets, bonds that are easily convertible and then about $18 million of unlevered loans that we could either lever or sell pretty easily.

Matthew Howlett: No. You did a great job getting another warehouse line and paying it down and trying to look forward for the next securitizations. It’s great that you have access to it, it’s a big step. And then on that note, I mean, could you just address, I mean, you talked about credit and the embedded HPA, but I think for investors, non-QM is getting a lot of press. It’s always the sort of area that people are cautious about 2023. And I know non-QM is a broad vector. And could you just talk about where your non-QM is in terms of credit versus maybe the overall industry and why you feel that it’s going to hold up better than just generic non-QM?