Orchid Island Capital Announces Second Quarter 2023 Results

Orchid Island Capital, Inc. (NYSE:ORC, Financial) ("Orchid” or the "Company"), a real estate investment trust ("REIT"), today announced results of operations for the three month period ended June 30, 2023.

Second Quarter 2023 Results

• Net income of $10.2 million, or $0.25 per common share, which consists of:
• Net interest expense of $8.8 million, or $0.22 per common share
• Total expenses of $4.8 million, or $0.12 per common share
• Net realized and unrealized gains of $23.8 million, or $0.59 per common share, on RMBS and derivative instruments, including net interest income on interest rate swaps
• Second quarter dividends declared and paid of $0.48 per common share
• Book value per common share of $11.16 at June 30, 2023
• Total return of 0.78%, comprised of $0.48 dividend per common share and $0.39 decrease in book value per common share, divided by beginning book value per common share

Other Financial Highlights

• Orchid maintained a liquidity position of $204.1 million in cash and cash equivalents and unpledged RMBS, or 42% of stockholders' equity as of June 30, 2023
• Borrowing capacity in excess of June 30, 2023 outstanding repurchase agreement balances of $4,201.7 million, spread across 20 active lenders
• Company to discuss results on Friday, July 28, 2023, 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, “The regional banking crisis that emerged in March of 2023 elicited a severe market reaction, but the Federal Reserve ('Fed') and U.S. Treasury were very responsive to these developments and the damage was quickly contained by effective macro-prudential policy. By late April, market focus began to shift away from the prospects of contagion from a couple of high-profile bank failures to an impasse between congressional Republicans and the Biden administration over the debt ceiling. Fortunately, the impasse was resolved in late May. While the debt ceiling impasse was resolved before the government ran out of borrowing capacity and risk sentiment improved modestly, the economic data, particularly with respect to core inflation and the labor market, did not improve at all. The U.S. Treasury curve inversion peaked in early July, interest rates continued to rise as the 2-year U.S. Treasury approached 5% and the futures market priced in nearly two additional rate increases by the Fed with no rate decreases at all in 2023. In short, market expectations were now in sync with Fed rhetoric that funding rates would be higher and for far longer than previously expected. These developments were not good for the Agency RMBS market as the spread between the Agency RMBS current coupon and the 5-year U.S. Treasury reached approximately 187.5 bps on May 26, 2023.

“Orchid has maintained a lower coupon bias throughout the tightening cycle as we believe these securities still offer superior total return potential over new origination, higher coupon securities. We continue to hold these securities for the same reasons. We raised approximately $48 million of new capital in the second quarter and deployed the proceeds into higher coupon, low pay-up specified pools and hedged these positions predominantly with swaps. With the U.S. Treasury curve inverted as much as it is our hedge positions allow us to earn approximately 100 basis points of marginal net interest income on the new securities. We have also taken our economic leverage ratio (total liabilities adjusted for net TBA positions, divided by total stockholders' equity) up from approximately 6.5 to 1 on March 31, 2023, to approximately 8.1 to 1 on June 30, 2023. We are comfortable doing so because we still believe return prospects on Agency RMBS are skewed to the upside at current rate and spread levels. We added higher coupons to mitigate the lower carry of our legacy assets to allow us to continue to hold them and retain their higher return potential in the event of a normalization of rates and U.S. Treasury curve shape. In late May, when Agency RMBS spreads were at the widest spreads we have observed since the 2008 financial crisis, we moved most of our TBA hedges to rate hedges.

“As the third quarter unfolds, markets and the Fed are closely focused on incoming economic data as it pertains to inflation and the labor markets. Market performance – for all asset classes – will likely be dominated by these developments and their implications for monetary policy going forward. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation ('FDIC') liquidation sales of Agency RMBS seized from failed banks that began in April have gone well and are nearing an end, far sooner than originally anticipated. We anticipate current interest rate levels and curve shape – while challenging for levered Agency RMBS investors – are at or near the extremes we will experience for the cycle. As such, we do not anticipate changes to our strategy other than possibly adding current income securities hedged with interest rate swaps to increase our net interest income, assuming we can add additional capital at attractive levels. We would not consider these positions long-term holds.”

Details of Second Quarter 2023 Results of Operations

The Company reported net income of $10.2 million for the three month period ended June 30, 2023, compared with a net loss of $60.1 million for the three month period ended June 30, 2022. The Company increased its Agency RMBS portfolio over the course of the second quarter of 2023, from $4.0 billion at March 31, 2023 to $4.4 billion at June 30, 2023. Interest income on the portfolio in the second quarter was up approximately $1.9 million from the first quarter of 2023. The yield on our average Agency RMBS decreased from 4.03% in the first quarter of 2023 to 3.81% for the second quarter of 2023, repurchase agreement borrowing costs increased from 4.72% for the first quarter of 2023 to 4.88% for the second quarter of 2023, and our net interest spread decreased from (0.69)% in the first quarter of 2023 to (1.07)% in the second quarter of 2023.

Book value decreased by $0.39 per share in the first quarter of 2023. The decrease in book value reflects our net income of $0.25 per share and the dividend distribution of $0.48 per share. The Company recorded net realized and unrealized gains of $0.59 per share on Agency RMBS assets and derivative instruments, including net interest income on interest rate swaps.

Prepayments

For the quarter ended June 30, 2023, Orchid received $138.4 million in scheduled and unscheduled principal repayments and prepayments, which equated to a 3-month constant prepayment rate (“CPR”) of approximately 5.3%. 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, 2023 and December 31, 2022:

Financing, Leverage and Liquidity

As of June 30, 2023, the Company had outstanding repurchase obligations of approximately $4,201.7 million with a net weighted average borrowing rate of 5.26%. These agreements were collateralized by RMBS with a fair value, including accrued interest, of approximately $4,383.3 million and cash pledged to counterparties of approximately $30.6 million. The Company’s adjusted leverage ratio, defined as the balance of repurchase agreement liabilities divided by stockholders' equity, at June 30, 2023 was 8.6 to 1. At June 30, 2023, the Company’s liquidity was approximately $204.1 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, 2023.