Ellington Financial Inc. (NYSE:EFC) Q1 2023 Results Conference Call May 9, 2023 11:00 AM ET

Company Participants

Alaael Deen Shilleh - Associate General Counsel

Larry Penn - CEO

Mark Tecotzky - Co-CIO

JR Herlihy - CFO

Conference Call Participants

Crispin Love - Piper Sandler

Trevor Cranston - JMP Securities

Doug Harter - Credit Suisse

Bose George - KBW

Operator

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Ellington Financial First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Today's call is being recorded. [Operator Instructions].

It is now my pleasure to turn the call over to Alaael Deen Shilleh, Associate General Counsel. You may begin.

Alaael Deen Shilleh

Thank you. Before we start, I would like to remind everyone that certain statements made during this conference call may constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements are not historical in nature and as described under Item 1A of our annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2022. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties that could cause the company's actual results to differ from its beliefs, expectations, estimates and projections.

Consequently, you should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Statements made during this conference call are made as of the date of this call, and the company undertakes no obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

I am joined on the call today by Larry Penn, Chief Executive Officer of Ellington Financial; Mark Tecotzky, Co-Chief Investment Officer of EFC; and JR Herlihy, Chief Financial Officer of EFC. As described in our earnings press release, our first quarter earnings conference call presentation is available on our website at ellingtonnfinancial.com. Management's prepared remarks will track the presentation. Please note that any references to figures in this presentation are qualified in their entirety by the end notes at the back of the presentation.

With that, I will now turn the call over to Larry.

Larry Penn

Thanks, Alaael Deen, and good morning, everyone. As always, thank you for your time and interest in Ellington Financial. I'll begin on Slide 3 of the presentation. In the first quarter, Ellington Financial generated net income of $0.58 per share and adjusted distributable earnings of $0.45 per share both up sequentially, and both of which covered our dividends for the quarter. Despite some significant market swings during the quarter, most notably in mid-March around the turmoil in the banking sector, EFC generated an economic return of 3.3% or 14% annualized and grew book value per share.