Orchid Island Capital Announces Second Quarter 2022 Results

VERO BEACH, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Orchid Island Capital, Inc. (NYSE:ORC) (“Orchid” or the “Company”), a real estate investment trust (“REIT”), today announced results of operations for the three month period ended June 30, 2022.

Second Quarter 2022 Highlights

• Net loss of $60.1 million, or $0.34 per common share, which consists of:
  • Net interest income of $27.1 million, or $0.15 per common share
  • Total expenses of $4.9 million, or $0.03 per common share
  • Net realized and unrealized losses of $82.3 million, or $0.46 per common share, on RMBS and derivative instruments, including net interest expense on interest rate swaps
• Second quarter total dividends declared and paid of $0.135 per common share
• Book value per common share of $2.87 at June 30, 2022
• Total return of (10.0)%, comprised of $0.135 dividend per common share and $0.47 decrease in book value per common share, divided by beginning book value per common share
• Company to discuss results on Friday, August 5, 2022, at 10:00 AM ET
• Supplemental materials to be discussed on the call can be downloaded from the investor relations section of the Company’s website at https://ir.orchidislandcapital.com

Management Commentary

Commenting on the second quarter results, Robert E. Cauley, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, said, “During the latter part of the second quarter of 2022 inflation data drove a material change in Federal Reserve (“Fed”) policy, interest rates and the outlook for the economy. Specifically, the consumer price index (“CPI”) data for May, released in June, increased far more than market expectations. Survey measures of inflation expectations, released on the same day, surged to multi-decade highs. The June CPI reading was released in July and was again well above market expectations. Equally troubling, elevated inflation readings were very broad based, implying inflationary pressures have clearly spread from just those sectors most exposed to COVID-19 related supply constraints. This was the catalyst for the Fed to pivot even more forcefully than they did during late 2021/early 2022, and the Fed raised the Fed Funds rate by 200 basis points collectively at the May, June and July meetings. The market expects the Fed to continuing raising the Fed Funds rate by another 100 basis points by year-end. Increases in the Fed Funds rate are likely to affect economic activity, and the Fed has acknowledged their actions may lead to a recession. Sectors of the economy most sensitive to interest rates – such as housing – have already started to slow and other economic indicators have shown evidence of slowing as well. The manufacturing sector of the economy has clearly begun to slow, and the labor market also has been impacted, as evidenced by initial claims for unemployment in July of 2022 rising by approximately 94,000 above the cycle low reading reported in early March of 2022.

“The Fed pivot that occurred in mid-June led to meaningful widening for Agency RMBS spreads in the days that followed the release of the inflation data and were near the extremes seen in March of 2020. This was particularly true for lower coupon fixed rate Agency RMBS where Orchid’s portfolio is concentrated. The poor performance of Agency RMBS and risk assets generally led to negative returns across the markets and to book value erosion for Orchid. However, while we have recorded significant mark-to-market losses on our portfolio during the second quarter of 2022 and over the last three quarters, most of these losses are unrealized and approximately 81.1% of the pass-through portfolio as of June 30, 2022, was acquired prior to the start of the fourth quarter of 2021.

“It appears the inflation data is sufficiently strong that the Fed sees the need for a more aggressive response, and the market expects the Fed to continue to raise the Fed Funds rate and tighten financial conditions until inflation appears to moderate sufficiently. The chances such tightening of financial conditions does not cause the economy to contract appear remote and, as stated above, we have already seen evidence this has begun to occur. This appears to be the market’s view as well, as evidenced by the inversion of the U.S. Treasury yield curve. It is possible we have already seen the highest levels in long-term U.S. Treasury yields for this cycle.

“If, as we expect, the economy slows over the next several quarters, the lack of any credit risk in the Agency RMBS market should lead to relative outperformance for the sector given the very wide spreads available currently. Further, Orchid’s existing portfolio of discount securities retains very favorable convexity, particularly in a decreasing rate environment as the duration, or rate sensitivity, of the securities should not decline materially if rates were to decrease. We believe these two factors leave Orchid well positioned as we move into the second half of 2022 and beyond. In fact, Agency RMBS have performed very well so far in the third quarter and have reversed most of the widening that occurred in June of 2022.”

Details of Second Quarter 2022 Results of Operations

The Company reported net loss of $60.1 million for the three month period ended June 30, 2022, compared with net loss of $16.9 million for the three month period ended June 30, 2021. The Company decreased its Agency RMBS portfolio over the course of the first six months of 2022, from $6.5 billion at December 31, 2021 to $3.9 billion at June 30, 2022. Interest income on the portfolio in the second quarter was down approximately $6.6 million from the first quarter of 2022. The yield on our average MBS increased from 3.02% in the first quarter of 2022 to 3.31% for the second of 2022, repurchase agreement borrowing costs increased from 0.20% for the first quarter of 2022 to 0.80% for the second quarter of 2022, and our net interest spread decreased from 2.82% in the first quarter of 2022 to 2.51% in the second quarter of 2022.

Book value decreased by $0.47 per share in the second quarter of 2022. The decrease in book value reflects our net loss of $0.34 per share and the dividend distribution of $0.135 per share. The Company recorded net realized and unrealized losses of $0.46 per share on Agency RMBS assets and derivative instruments, including net interest expense on interest rate swaps.

Prepayments

For the quarter ended June 30, 2022, Orchid received $122.4 million in scheduled and unscheduled principal repayments and prepayments, which equated to a 3-month constant prepayment rate (“CPR”) of approximately 9.4%. Prepayment rates on the two RMBS sub-portfolios were as follows (in CPR):

Portfolio

The following tables summarize certain characteristics of Orchid’s PT RMBS (as defined below) and structured RMBS as of June 30, 2022 and December 31, 2021:

Financing, Leverage and Liquidity

As of June 30, 2022, the Company had outstanding repurchase obligations of approximately $3,759.0 million with a net weighted average borrowing rate of 1.36%. These agreements were collateralized by RMBS with a fair value, including accrued interest, of approximately $3,939.4 million and cash pledged to counterparties of approximately $51.1 million. The Company’s leverage ratio at June 30, 2022 was 7.8 to 1. At June 30, 2022, the Company’s liquidity was approximately $233.7 million, consisting of cash and cash equivalents and unpledged RMBS (not including unsettled securities purchases). To enhance our liquidity even further, we may pledge more of our structured RMBS as part of a repurchase agreement funding, but retain the cash in lieu of acquiring additional assets. In this way we can, at a modest cost, retain higher levels of cash on hand and decrease the likelihood we will have to sell assets in a distressed market in order to raise cash. Below is a list of our outstanding borrowings under repurchase obligations at June 30, 2022.

Hedging

In connection with its interest rate risk management strategy, the Company economically hedges a portion of the cost of its repurchase agreement funding against a rise in interest rates by entering into derivative financial instrument contracts. The Company has not elected hedging treatment under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) in order to align the accounting treatment of its derivative instruments with the treatment of its portfolio assets under the fair value option election. As such, all gains or losses on these instruments are reflected in earnings for all periods presented. At June 30, 2022, such instruments were comprised of Treasury note (“T-Note”) futures contracts, interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaption agreements, interest rate caps and contracts to buy and sell TBA securities.

The table below presents information related to the Company’s T-Note futures contracts at June 30, 2022.

The table below presents information related to the Company’s interest rate swap positions at June 30, 2022.

The following table presents information related to our interest rate swaption positions as of June 30, 2022.

The following table presents information related to our interest cap positions as of June 30, 2022.

The following table summarizes our contracts to purchase and sell TBA securities as of June 30, 2022.

Dividends

In addition to other requirements that must be satisfied to qualify as a REIT, we must pay annual dividends to our stockholders of at least 90% of our REIT taxable income, determined without regard to the deduction for dividends paid and excluding any net capital gains. We intend to pay regular monthly dividends to our stockholders and have declared the following dividends since our February 2013 IPO.

Book Value Per Share

The Company’s book value per share at June 30, 2022 was $2.87. The Company computes book value per share by dividing total stockholders’ equity by the total number of shares outstanding of the Company’s common stock. At June 30, 2022, the Company’s stockholders’ equity was $506.4 million with 176,251,193 shares of common stock outstanding.

Capital Allocation and Return on Invested Capital

The table below details the changes to the respective sub-portfolios during the quarter.

The Company allocates capital to two RMBS sub-portfolios, the pass-through RMBS portfolio, consisting of mortgage pass-through certificates issued by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac or Ginnie Mae (the “GSEs”) and collateralized mortgage obligations (“CMOs”) issued by the GSEs (“PT RMBS”), and the structured RMBS portfolio, consisting of interest-only (“IO”) and inverse interest-only (“IIO”) securities. As of March 31, 2022, approximately 62% of the Company’s investable capital (which consists of equity in pledged PT RMBS, available cash and unencumbered assets) was deployed in the PT RMBS portfolio. At June 30, 2022, the allocation to the PT RMBS portfolio remained approximately 62%.

The tables below present the allocation of capital between the respective portfolios at June 30, 2022 and March 31, 2022, and the return on invested capital for each sub-portfolio for the three month period ended June 30, 2022.

The return on invested capital in the PT RMBS and structured RMBS portfolios was approximately (19.7)% and 5.3%, respectively, for the second quarter of 2022. The combined portfolio generated a return on invested capital of approximately (10.1)%.

Stock Offerings

On October 29, 2021, we entered into an equity distribution agreement (the “October 2021 Equity Distribution Agreement”) with four sales agents pursuant to which we may offer and sell, from time to time, up to an aggregate amount of $250,000,000 of shares of our common stock in transactions that are deemed to be “at the market” offerings and privately negotiated transactions. Through June 30, 2022, we issued a total of 15,835,700 shares under the October 2021 Equity Distribution Agreement for aggregate gross proceeds of approximately $78.3 million, and net proceeds of approximately $77.0 million, after commissions and fees. We did not issue any shares under the October 2021 Equity Distribution Agreement during the six months ended June 30, 2022.

Stock Repurchase Program

On July 29, 2015, the Company’s Board of Directors authorized the repurchase of up to 2,000,000 shares of our common stock. The timing, manner, price and amount of any repurchases is determined by the Company in its discretion and is subject to economic and market conditions, stock price, applicable legal requirements and other factors. The authorization does not obligate the Company to acquire any particular amount of common stock and the program may be suspended or discontinued at the Company’s discretion without prior notice.

Contacts

Orchid Island Capital, Inc.

Robert E. Cauley, 772-231-1400

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

https://ir.orchidislandcapital.com

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