AG Mortgage Investment Trust (NYSE: MITT) reported Q1 EPS of ($14.98), versus $0.84 reported last year. Revenue for the quarter came in at $20.3 million versus the consensus estimate of $22.15 million.

FIRST QUARTER 2020 FINANCIAL SNAPSHOT

• $(14.98) of Net Income/(Loss) per diluted common share(1)
• $2.63 Book Value per share(1) as of March 31, 2020 versus $17.61 as of December 31, 2019
• $1.6 billion Investment Portfolio with a 3.3x Economic Leverage Ratio as of March 31, 2020 as compared to the $4.4 billion and 4.1x, respectively, as of December 31, 2019(2)(3)(4)
• $1.2 billion of financing arrangements as of March 31, 2020(a) as compared to the $3.5 billion as of December 31, 2019(a)
• Duration gap was approximately 2.63 years as of March 31, 2020(5)
• We are not disclosing Core Earnings, a non-GAAP financial measure, for the first quarter of 2020, as we determined that this measure, as we have historically calculated it, would not appropriately capture the materially negative economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on our business, liquidity, results of operations, financial condition, and ability to make distributions to our stockholders. As financial markets stabilize, we will evaluate whether core earnings or other non-GAAP financial measures would help both management and investors evaluate our operating performance for future periods.

MANAGEMENT REMARKS

David Roberts, Chief Executive Officer, commented, "The initial stages of the COVID crisis in March disrupted the markets in every aspect of MITT’s portfolio. As a result of this disruption, MITT began to receive a rising tide of margin calls. We met the calls for as long as we prudently could, using a portion of our cash reserves and selling those assets we believed were the least-worst to sell, most notably our portfolio of Agency RMBS. At a certain point, however, the margin calls became overwhelming. Accordingly, we announced that we would not meet margin calls and would seek a forbearance agreement from our repo lenders. As detailed in our many 8-K filings, we negotiated three forbearance agreements. We are pleased to announce that we exited forbearance two days ago and reinstated bilateral agreements with all our current lenders."

"Immediately prior to and during the two month period of our forbearance, we sold the majority of our assets, paid off the related financing, and consolidated our remaining repo arrangements down to six lenders," Roberts added. "In downsizing our portfolio, mostly during a time of severe dislocation in our markets, MITT took substantial losses. The Company began the year with a common equity book value of $17.61 per share. As we reported in our 8-K filed on May 7th, we estimated that our common book value per share as of April 30th was in a range from $1.80-$1.90 per share, a decline of almost 90%. The majority of those losses have been realized through sales. Based on our preliminary internal analysis, we estimate that book value as of May 31 was in a range not substantially higher than it was at April 30. Going forward, we anticipate continuing to raise liquidity and reducing debt through selected asset sales. Based on current conditions for our company, we do not anticipate paying dividends on either our common or preferred stock for the foreseeable future."

For earnings history and earnings-related data on AG Mortgage Investment Trust (MITT) click here.