MFA Financial said first-quarter results swung to a GAAP net loss of $11.4 million, or $0.11 per share, from a profit in the prior period, while distributable earnings fell to $31.1 million, or $0.30 per share, from $35.5 million, or $0.34 per share, for distributable earnings prior to realized credit losses.
The company paid a quarterly dividend of $0.36 per share on April 30, above distributable earnings per share of $0.30. Book value per share was $12.70 at March 31, while economic book value was $13.22.
MFA’s investment portfolio increased to $12.5 billion at the end of the quarter from $12.3 billion at Dec. 31, a gain of $203 million. The portfolio shift was driven by $1.064 billion of acquisitions and originations, partly offset by $698 million of runoff and $163 million of other reductions tied mainly to sales, fair-value changes and credit-loss allowance changes.
Residential whole loans and REO ended the quarter at $8.922 billion, down $23 million from Dec. 31, while securities at fair value rose $226 million to $3.586 billion. Non-QM loans increased to $5.531 billion from $5.347 billion, and business purpose loans declined to $2.262 billion from $2.443 billion.
Within residential whole loans, total loans fell to 23,665 from 23,765, while the carrying-value portfolio declined to $1.044 billion from $1.093 billion. Fair-value holdings on the same portfolio were $7.740 billion, up slightly from $7.717 billion.
Net interest spread on the total balance sheet narrowed to 1.64% from 1.69% in the prior quarter and 1.84% a year earlier. For residential whole loans, the spread fell to 1.68% from 1.78% in the fourth quarter and 2.01% a year earlier. For securities, the spread was 2.19%, up from 2.17% in the fourth quarter but down from 2.57% a year earlier.
Non-QM loan net interest spread slipped to 1.19% from 1.32%, while business purpose loan spread fell to 1.90% from 2.12%. Legacy RPL/NPL loans were the outlier, with spread rising to 4.02% from 3.61%.
Mortgage banking income at Lima One rose to $7.7 million, up 34% from the fourth quarter of 2025. Lima One funded $130.2 million of new business purpose loans and $70.4 million of draws on existing transitional loans. MFA also said it sold $80.9 million of newly originated single-family rental loans and 68 REO properties for $18.2 million in net proceeds.
Delinquencies worsened during the quarter: 60-plus-day delinquencies in the residential loan portfolio rose to 7.8% from 7.1% at year-end, before easing to 7.3% after quarter-end. In the residential whole-loan book, 60-plus-day delinquency was 7.8% at March 31, up from 7.1% in December.
MFA completed two loan securitizations backed by $757.2 million of non-QM loans, bringing total securitized debt to about $6.3 billion. It added a net $685.1 million of interest-rate hedges and held estimated net effective duration at 0.96 years.
The company ended the quarter with $221.6 million of unrestricted cash and $174.8 million of unpledged agency MBS. Leverage stood at 6.3x debt-to-net-equity and 2.7x recourse leverage. MFA also repurchased more than 500,000 shares during the quarter. Following these announcements, the company's shares moved -2.57%, and are now trading at a price of $9.8989. If you want to know more, read the company's complete 8-K report here.
