New York Mortgage Trust (NASDAQ: NYMT) reported Q3 EPS of $0.20, $0.05 better than the analyst estimate of $0.15.

Steven Mumma, NYMT’s Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, commented: "The Company had a solid quarter of earnings and book value, with GAAP earnings of $0.21 per common share and book value at $5.72, down $0.04 from the previous quarter. The Company delivered a 2.8% economic return for the quarter and a 7.1% annualized economic return for the nine months ended September 30, 2018. The Company raised a total of $101.2 million in common equity during the quarter at an average net price of $6.02, or approximately 4% accretive to our June 30, 2018 book value.

The Company’s net interest margin improved 16 basis points to 255 basis points from the previous quarter. The improvement is largely attributable to our continued focus on credit sensitive assets in both residential and multi-family, adding $161.5 million during the quarter. The Company continues to see improved valuations for multi-family assets, with our multi-family CMBS contributing $12.3 million in unrealized gains during the quarter. The Company also benefited from a $3.6 million recovery in one of our multi-family joint venture equity investments which had been previously written down.

The Company sold distressed loans for total proceeds of $30.1 million in the quarter and anticipates more sales in the fourth quarter. The previously announced internalization of the single family residential credit strategy progressed nicely during the quarter with the addition of 11 employees, bringing the total number of new hires year-to-date to 12 employees. We continue to work towards a mutual early termination of our external management agreement and anticipate a final transition strategy for those services by the end of the year.

As we look at the fourth quarter of 2018, our pipeline for new investments is strong, with over $390 million in purchases or commitments to purchase credit assets, including securities and loans. We believe the addition of our new team of residential credit professionals, together with our existing team, has us well positioned for 2019. Consistent with our approach in recent years, we will continue to focus on credit assets as we believe these assets give us the best balance of risk and return."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on New York Mortgage Trust (NYMT) click here.