NEW YORK, Feb. 21, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. (Nasdaq: NYMT) (“NYMT,” the “Company,” “we,” “our” or “us”) today reported results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2023.

Summary of FourthQuarter and Full Year 2023: (dollar amounts in thousands, except per share data)

Key Developments:

Fourth Quarter 2023

• Purchased approximately $416.4 million of Agency RMBS and approximately $237.7 million in residential loans.
• Sold investment securities for approximately $39.3 million in proceeds.
• Received approximately $29.8 million in proceeds from the redemption of a Mezzanine Lending investment.
• Renewed and amended repurchase agreements for residential loans and single-family rental properties with existing counterparties increasing maximum aggregate purchase price to $2.2 billion.
• Suspended the marketing of nine multi-family properties held by joint venture equity investments that were in disposal group held for sale primarily due to unfavorable market conditions and a lack of transactional activity in the multi-family market which resulted in a loss upon reclassification of these investments from disposal group held for sale to held and used of approximately $16.2 million.

Full Year 2023 Investing Activities

• Purchased approximately $2.0 billion of Agency RMBS and approximately $620.3 million in residential loans.
• Sold investment securities for approximately $64.7 million in proceeds and residential loans for approximately $25.1 million in proceeds.
• Funded approximately $55.9 million of Mezzanine Lending investments. Received approximately $94.6 million in proceeds from redemptions of Mezzanine Lending investments.
• Sold five multi-family properties held by joint venture equity investments representing total net equity investments of $43.2 million.
• Repurchased $59.9 million par value of our residential loan securitization CDOs for approximately $58.4 million.
• Recognized $89.5 million of impairment losses due to declines in estimated fair value of multi-family properties held by joint venture equity investments in disposal group held for sale driven by wider cap rates and lower net operating income at the properties.

Full Year 2023 Financing Activities

• Obtained approximately $84.9 million of financing for residential loans through a repurchase agreement with a new counterparty.
• Obtained approximately $74.3 million of financing for single-family rental properties through a repurchase agreement with an existing counterparty.
• Effected a one-for-four reverse stock split of our issued, outstanding and authorized shares of common stock.
• Announced upsize of common stock repurchase program to $246.0 million and authorized preferred stock repurchase program under which the Company may repurchase up to $100.0 million of the Company’s preferred stock.
• Repurchased 937,850 shares of common stock pursuant to common stock repurchase program for approximately $8.6 million at an average repurchase price of $9.19 per common share and 120,580 shares of preferred stock pursuant to preferred stock repurchase program for approximately $2.4 million at an average repurchase price of $20.29 per preferred share.

Subsequent Developments

• Completed a securitization of business purpose loans, resulting in approximately $223.2 million in net proceeds to us after deducting estimated expenses associated with the transaction. We utilized the net proceeds to repay approximately $136.6 million on outstanding repurchase agreements related to residential loans.
• On February 21, 2024, we announced that our Board of Directors approved extensions of our common stock repurchase program, under which $193.2 million of the approved amount remained available for repurchase, and our preferred stock repurchase program, under which $97.6 million of the approved amount remained available for repurchase. The expiration dates of both stock repurchase programs were extended from March 31, 2024 to March 31, 2025.

Management Overview

Jason Serrano, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “The end of an economic cycle often generates heightened macroeconomic volatility as we approach inflection points in the market. Over the past few months, market developments may be illustrative of these trends. Volatility was high in the latter half of last year, then shifted lower as the Fed pivoted to a more dovish stance at the end of 2023. However, as 2024 began, longer-term Treasury yields rose, accompanied by a shift in the intermediate yield curve towards a more positive slope due to renewed inflation concerns.

A prevailing issue confounding rate expectations arises from U.S. government deficit spending that has failed to subside to sustainable levels. An increased U.S. debt burden has the potential to crowd out market investment activity. In addition, a dislocated commercial real estate market with approximately $2.8 trillion of loans maturing over the next four years presents significant challenges, particularly for banks. Liquidity in the credit markets has the potential to become strained pushing out the return horizon for investors and providing more attractive entry points at higher returns for NYMT.

In hindsight, the past decision to reduce portfolio risk and increase liquidity turned out to be premature and consequently lowered Company earnings throughout 2023. However, we believe this approach will yield improved results not only this year, but has the potential to enhance results in the years ahead as trillions of dollars of maturing commercial real estate debt is sorted out.”

Capital Allocation

The following table sets forth, by investment category, our allocated capital at December 31, 2023 (dollar amounts in thousands):

The following table sets forth certain information about our interest earning assets by category and their related adjusted interest income, adjusted interest expense, adjusted net interest income, yield on average interest earning assets, average financing cost and net interest spread for the three months ended December 31, 2023 (dollar amounts in thousands):

Three Months Ended December 31, 2023

Conference Call

On Thursday, February 22, 2024 at 9:00 a.m., Eastern Time, New York Mortgage Trust's executive management is scheduled to host a conference call and audio webcast to discuss the Company’s financial results for the three and twelve months ended December 31, 2023. To access the conference call, please pre-register using this link. Registrants will receive confirmation with dial-in details. A live audio webcast of the conference call can be accessed via the Internet, on a listen-only basis, at the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at http://www.nymtrust.com or using this link. Please allow extra time, prior to the call, to visit the site and download the necessary software to listen to the Internet broadcast. A webcast replay link of the conference call will be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company’s website approximately two hours after the call and will be available for 12 months.

In connection with the release of these financial results, the Company will also post a supplemental financial presentation that will accompany the conference call on its website at http://www.nymtrust.com under the "Investors — Events and Presentations" section. Full year 2023 financial and operating data can be viewed in the Company’s Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2023, which is expected to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on or about February 23, 2024. A copy of the Form 10-K will be posted at the Company’s website as soon as reasonably practicable following its filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

About New York Mortgage Trust

New York Mortgage Trust, Inc. is a Maryland corporation that has elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) for federal income tax purposes. NYMT is an internally-managed REIT in the business of acquiring, investing in, financing and managing primarily mortgage-related single-family and multi-family residential assets. For a list of defined terms used from time to time in this press release, see “Defined Terms” below.

Defined Terms

The following defines certain of the commonly used terms that may appear in this press release: “RMBS” refers to residential mortgage-backed securities backed by adjustable-rate, hybrid adjustable-rate, or fixed-rate residential loans; “Agency RMBS” refers to RMBS representing interests in or obligations backed by pools of residential loans guaranteed by a government sponsored enterprise (“GSE”), such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) or the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), or an agency of the U.S. government, such as the Government National Mortgage Association (“Ginnie Mae”); “ABS” refers to debt and/or equity tranches of securitizations backed by various asset classes including, but not limited to, automobiles, aircraft, credit cards, equipment, franchises, recreational vehicles and student loans; “non-Agency RMBS” refers to RMBS that are not guaranteed by any agency of the U.S. Government or any GSE; “IOs” refers collectively to interest only and inverse interest only mortgage-backed securities that represent the right to the interest component of the cash flow from a pool of mortgage loans; “POs” refers to mortgage-backed securities that represent the right to the principal component of the cash flow from a pool of mortgage loans; “CMBS” refers to commercial mortgage-backed securities comprised of commercial mortgage pass-through securities issued by a GSE, as well as PO, IO or mezzanine securities that represent the right to a specific component of the cash flow from a pool of commercial mortgage loans; “multi-family CMBS” refers to CMBS backed by commercial mortgage loans on multi-family properties; “CDO” refers to collateralized debt obligation and includes debt that permanently finances the residential loans held in Consolidated SLST and the Company's residential loans held in securitization trusts that we consolidate or consolidated in our financial statements in accordance with GAAP; “Consolidated SLST” refers to a Freddie Mac-sponsored residential loan securitization, comprised of seasoned re-performing and non-performing residential loans, of which we own the first loss subordinated securities and certain IOs, that we consolidate in our financial statements in accordance with GAAP; “Consolidated VIEs” refers to variable interest entities ("VIE") where the Company is the primary beneficiary, as it has both the power to direct the activities that most significantly impact the economic performance of the VIE and a right to receive benefits or absorb losses of the entity that could be potentially significant to the VIE and that we consolidate in our financial statements in accordance with GAAP; “Consolidated Real Estate VIEs” refers to Consolidated VIEs that own multi-family properties; “business purpose loans” refers to (i) short-term loans that are collateralized by residential properties and are made to investors who intend to rehabilitate and sell the residential property for a profit or (ii) loans that finance (or refinance) non-owner occupied residential properties that are rented to one or more tenants; “Mezzanine Lending” refers, collectively, to preferred equity and mezzanine loan investments; “Multi-Family” portfolio includes multi-family CMBS, Mezzanine Lending and certain equity investments in multi-family assets, including joint venture equity investments; “Single-Family” portfolio includes residential loans, Agency RMBS, non-Agency RMBS and single-family rental properties; and “Other” portfolio includes ABS and an equity investment in an entity that originates residential loans.

Cautionary Statement Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

When used in this press release, in future filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) or in other written or oral communications, statements which are not historical in nature, including those containing words such as “will,” “believe,” “expect,” “anticipate,” “estimate,” “plan,” “continue,” “intend,” “could,” “would,” “should,” “may” or similar expressions, are intended to identify “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended (the “Exchange Act”), and, as such, may involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and assumptions.

Forward-looking statements are based on estimates, projections, beliefs and assumptions of management of the Company at the time of such statements and are not guarantees of future performance. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties in predicting future results and conditions. Actual results and outcomes could differ materially from those projected in these forward-looking statements due to a variety of factors, including, without limitation: changes in the Company’s business and investment strategy; inflation and changes in interest rates and the fair market value of the Company’s assets, including negative changes resulting in margin calls relating to the financing of the Company’s assets; changes in credit spreads; changes in the long-term credit ratings of the U.S., Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and Ginnie Mae; general volatility of the markets in which the Company invests; changes in prepayment rates on the loans the Company owns or that underlie the Company’s investment securities; increased rates of default, delinquency or vacancy and/or decreased recovery rates on or at the Company’s assets; the Company’s ability to identify and acquire targeted assets, including assets in its investment pipeline; the Company's ability to dispose of assets from time to time on terms favorable to it, including the disposition over time of its joint venture equity investments; changes in relationships with the Company’s financing counterparties and the Company’s ability to borrow to finance its assets and the terms thereof; changes in the Company's relationships with and/or the performance of its operating partners; the Company’s ability to predict and control costs; changes in laws, regulations or policies affecting the Company’s business; the Company’s ability to make distributions to its stockholders in the future; the Company’s ability to maintain its qualification as a REIT for federal tax purposes; the Company’s ability to maintain its exemption from registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, as amended; impairments in the value of the collateral underlying the Company's investments; the Company's ability to manage or hedge credit risk, interest rate risk, and other financial and operational risks; the Company's exposure to liquidity risk, risks associated with the use of leverage, and market risks; and risks associated with investing in real estate assets, including changes in business conditions and the general economy, the availability of investment opportunities and the conditions in the market for Agency RMBS, non-Agency RMBS, ABS and CMBS securities, residential loans, structured multi-family investments and other mortgage-, residential housing- and credit-related assets.

These and other risks, uncertainties and factors, including the risk factors and other information described in the Company’s reports filed with the SEC pursuant to the Exchange Act, could cause the Company’s actual results to differ materially from those projected in any forward-looking statements the Company makes. All forward-looking statements speak only as of the date on which they are made. New risks and uncertainties arise over time and it is not possible to predict those events or how they may affect the Company. Except as required by law, the Company is not obligated to, and does not intend to, update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

For Further Information

CONTACT: AT THE COMPANYPhone: 212-792-0107Email: InvestorRelations@nymtrust.com

FINANCIAL TABLES FOLLOW

Reconciliation of Financial Information

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the results presented in accordance with GAAP, this press release includes certain non-GAAP financial measures, including adjusted interest income, adjusted interest expense, adjusted net interest income, yield on average interest earning assets, average financing cost, net interest spread, undepreciated earnings and adjusted book value per common share. Our management team believes that these non-GAAP financial measures, when considered with our GAAP financial statements, provide supplemental information useful for investors as it enables them to evaluate our current performance and trends using the metrics that management uses to operate our business. Our presentation of non-GAAP financial measures may not be comparable to similarly-titled measures of other companies, who may use different calculations. Because these measures are not calculated in accordance with GAAP, they should not be considered a substitute for, or superior to, the financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. Our GAAP financial results and the reconciliations of the non-GAAP financial measures included in this press release to the most directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with GAAP should be carefully evaluated.

Adjusted Net Interest Income and Net Interest Spread

Financial results for the Company during a given period include the net interest income earned on our investment portfolio of residential loans, RMBS, CMBS, ABS and preferred equity investments and mezzanine loans, where the risks and payment characteristics are equivalent to and accounted for as loans (collectively, our “interest earning assets”). Adjusted net interest income and net interest spread (both supplemental non-GAAP financial measures) are impacted by factors such as our cost of financing, including our hedging costs, and the interest rate that our investments bear. Furthermore, the amount of premium or discount paid on purchased investments and the prepayment rates on investments will impact adjusted net interest income as such factors will be amortized over the expected term of such investments.

We provide the following non-GAAP financial measures, in total and by investment category, for the respective periods:

• adjusted interest income – calculated as our GAAP interest income reduced by the interest expense recognized on Consolidated SLST CDOs,
• adjusted interest expense – calculated as our GAAP interest expense reduced by the interest expense recognized on Consolidated SLST CDOs and adjusted to include the net interest component of interest rate swaps,
• adjusted net interest income – calculated by subtracting adjusted interest expense from adjusted interest income,
• yield on average interest earning assets – calculated as the quotient of our adjusted interest income and our average interest earning assets and excludes all Consolidated SLST assets other than those securities owned by the Company,
• average financing cost – calculated as the quotient of our adjusted interest expense and the average outstanding balance of our interest bearing liabilities, excluding Consolidated SLST CDOs and mortgages payable on real estate, and
• net interest spread – calculated as the difference between our yield on average interest earning assets and our average financing cost.

These measures remove the impact of Consolidated SLST that we consolidate in accordance with GAAP and include the net interest component of interest rate swaps utilized to hedge the variable cash flows associated with our variable-rate borrowings, which is included in gains (losses) on derivative instruments, net in the Company's consolidated statements of operations. With respect to Consolidated SLST, we only include the interest income earned by the Consolidated SLST securities that are actually owned by the Company as the Company only receives income or absorbs losses related to the Consolidated SLST securities actually owned by the Company. We include the net interest component of interest rate swaps in these measures to more fully represent the cost of our financing strategy.

We provide the non-GAAP financial measures listed above because we believe these non-GAAP financial measures provide investors and management with additional detail and enhance their understanding of our interest earning asset yields, in total and by investment category, relative to the cost of our financing and the underlying trends within our portfolio of interest earning assets. In addition to the foregoing, our management team uses these measures to assess, among other things, the performance of our interest earning assets in total and by asset, possible cash flows from our interest earning assets in total and by asset, our ability to finance or borrow against the asset and the terms of such financing and the composition of our portfolio of interest earning assets, including acquisition and disposition determinations.

Prior to the quarter ended December 31, 2022, we also reduced GAAP interest expense by the interest expense on mortgages payable on real estate. Commencing with the quarter ended December 31, 2022, we reclassified the interest expense on mortgages payable on real estate to expenses related to real estate on our consolidated statements of operations and, as such, it is no longer included in GAAP interest expense. Prior period disclosures have been conformed to the current period presentation.

A reconciliation of GAAP interest income to adjusted interest income, GAAP interest expense to adjusted interest expense and GAAP total net interest income to adjusted net interest income for the three months ended as of the dates indicated is presented below (dollar amounts in thousands):

Undepreciated Earnings (Loss)

Undepreciated earnings (loss) is a supplemental non-GAAP financial measure defined as GAAP net income (loss) attributable to Company's common stockholders excluding the Company's share in depreciation expense and lease intangible amortization expense related to operating real estate, net. By excluding these non-cash adjustments from our operating results, we believe that the presentation of undepreciated earnings (loss) provides a consistent measure of our operating performance and useful information to investors to evaluate the effective net return on our portfolio. In addition, we believe that presenting undepreciated earnings (loss) enables our investors to measure, evaluate, and compare our operating performance to that of our peers.

A reconciliation of net income (loss) attributable to Company's common stockholders to undepreciated earnings (loss) for the respective periods ended is presented below (amounts in thousands, except per share data):

Adjusted Book Value Per Common Share

Previously, we presented undepreciated book value per common share as a non-GAAP financial measure. Commencing with the quarter ended December 31, 2022, we discontinued disclosure of undepreciated book value per common share and instead present adjusted book value per common share, also a non-GAAP financial measure.

When presented in prior periods, undepreciated book value was calculated by excluding from GAAP book value the Company's share of cumulative depreciation and lease intangible amortization expenses related to real estate held at the end of the period. Since we began disclosing undepreciated book value, we identified additional items as materially affecting our book value and believe they should also be incorporated in order to provide a more useful non-GAAP measure for investors to evaluate our current performance and trends and facilitate the comparison of our financial performance and adjusted book value per common share to that of our peers. Accordingly, we calculate adjusted book value per common share by making the following adjustments to GAAP book value: (i) exclude the Company's share of cumulative depreciation and lease intangible amortization expenses related to real estate held at the end of the period for which an impairment has not been recognized, (ii) exclude the cumulative adjustment of redeemable non-controlling interests to estimated redemption value and (iii) adjust our liabilities that finance our investment portfolio to fair value.

Our rental property portfolio includes fee simple interests in single-family rental homes and joint venture equity interests in multi-family properties owned by Consolidated Real Estate VIEs. By excluding our share of cumulative non-cash depreciation and amortization expenses related to real estate held at the end of the period for which an impairment has not been recognized, adjusted book value reflects the value, at their undepreciated basis, of our single-family rental properties and joint venture equity investments that the Company has determined to be recoverable at the end of the period.

Additionally, in connection with third party ownership of certain of the non-controlling interests in certain of the Consolidated Real Estate VIEs, we record redeemable non-controlling interests as mezzanine equity on our consolidated balance sheets. The holders of the redeemable non-controlling interests may elect to sell their ownership interests to us at fair value once a year, subject to annual minimum and maximum amount limitations, resulting in an adjustment of the redeemable non-controlling interests to fair value that is accounted for by us as an equity transaction in accordance with GAAP. A key component of the estimation of fair value of the redeemable non-controlling interests is the estimated fair value of the multi-family apartment properties held by the applicable Consolidated Real Estate VIEs. However, because the corresponding real estate assets are not reported at fair value and thus not adjusted to reflect unrealized gains or losses in our consolidated financial statements, the cumulative adjustment of the redeemable non-controlling interests to fair value directly affects our GAAP book value. By excluding the cumulative adjustment of redeemable non-controlling interests to estimated redemption value, adjusted book value more closely aligns the accounting treatment applied to these real estate assets and reflects our joint venture equity investment at its undepreciated basis.

The substantial majority of our remaining assets are financial or similar instruments that are carried at fair value in accordance with the fair value option in our consolidated financial statements. However, unlike our use of the fair value option for the assets in our investment portfolio, the CDOs issued by our residential loan securitizations, senior unsecured notes and subordinated debentures that finance our investment portfolio assets are carried at amortized cost in our consolidated financial statements. By adjusting these financing instruments to fair value, adjusted book value reflects the Company's net equity in investments on a comparable fair value basis.

We believe that the presentation of adjusted book value per common share provides a more useful measure for investors and us than undepreciated book value as it provides a more consistent measure of our value, allows management to effectively consider our financial position and facilitates the comparison of our financial performance to that of our peers.

A reconciliation of GAAP book value to adjusted book value and calculation of adjusted book value per common share as of the dates indicated is presented below (amounts in thousands, except per share data):

Equity Investments in Multi-Family Entities

We own joint venture equity investments in entities that own multi-family properties. We determined that these joint venture entities are VIEs and that we are the primary beneficiary of all but two of these VIEs, resulting in consolidation of the VIEs where we are the primary beneficiary, including their assets, liabilities, income and expenses, in our consolidated financial statements with non-controlling interests for the third-party ownership of the joint ventures' membership interests. With respect to the two additional joint venture equity investments for which we determined that we are not the primary beneficiary, we record our equity investments at fair value.

In September 2022, the Company announced a repositioning of its business through the opportunistic disposition over time of the Company's joint venture equity investments in multi-family properties and reallocation of its capital away from such assets to its targeted assets. Accordingly, as of December 31, 2023, the Company determined that certain joint venture equity investments met the criteria to be classified as held for sale and the assets and liabilities of the respective Consolidated VIEs are reported in assets and liabilities of disposal group held for sale.

We also own a preferred equity investment in a VIE that owns a multi-family property and for which, as of December 31, 2023, the Company determined it is the primary beneficiary, resulting in consolidation of the assets, liabilities, income and expenses of the VIE in our consolidated financial statements with a non-controlling interest for the third-party ownership of the VIE's membership interests.

A reconciliation of our net equity investments in consolidated multi-family properties and disposal group held for sale to our consolidated financial statements as of December 31, 2023 is shown below (dollar amounts in thousands):