Ladder Capital Corp. (NYSE:LADR) Q1 2022 Results Conference Call April 28, 2022 5:00 PM ET
Company Participants
Pamela McCormack - President
Brian Harris - CEO
Paul Miceli - CFO
Robert Perelman - Head, Asset Management
Conference Call Participants
Jade Rahmani - KBW
Ricardo Chinchilla - Deutsche Bank
Eric Hagen - BTIG
Matthew Howlett - B. Riley
Chris Muller - JMP Securities
Operator
Good afternoon, and welcome to Ladder Capital Corp's Earnings Call for the First Quarter of 2022. As a reminder, today's call is being recorded. This afternoon, Ladder released its financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2022.
Before the call begins, I'd like to call your attention to the customary safe harbor disclosure in our earnings release regarding forward-looking statements. Today's call may include forward-looking statements and projections, and we refer you to our most recent Form 10-K for important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from these statements and projections. We do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements or projections unless required by law.
In addition, Ladder will discuss certain non-GAAP financial measures on this call which management believes are relevant to assessing the company's financial performance. The company's presentation of this information is not intended to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the financial information presented in accordance with GAAP. These measures are reconciled to GAAP figures in our supplemental presentation, which is available in the Investor Relations section of our website.
At this time, I'd like to turn the call over to Ladder's President, Pamela McCormack.
Pamela McCormack
Thank you, and good evening, everyone. This time last year we described our goal for 2021 to restore our earnings back to a level that comfortably covered our cash dividend, by deploying the outside cash we built in 2020. While loan payoffs during that tumultuous year confirm the strength of our underwriting and real estate valuation skills, our ample liquidity with limit earnings until those payoffs will replace with new investments.
Our discipline deployment of that capital led to successive earnings growth in each quarter of 2021, and full dividend coverage by the fourth quarter. Today, 75% of our balance sheet with loan portfolio is now comprised of newly originated loans. We expect our strong loan originations momentum accompanied by significant improvements in our capital structure, to benefit our shareholders in the quarters and years ahead.
For the first quarter of 2022, Ladder generated distributable earnings of $31.5 million or $0.25 per share. We continued to drive Ladder's earnings and portfolio growth with another strong quarter of balance sheet loan originations.