New York Mortgage Trust, Inc.

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the New York Mortgage Trust fourth quarter 2024 results conference call. During today's presentation, all parties will be in a listen-only mode. Following the presentation, the conference will be open for questions. If you have a question, please press star 11 on your telephone. If you would like to withdraw your question, please press star 11 again. If you are using a speaker equipment, we do ask that you please lift the headset before making your selection. This conference is being recorded on Thursday, February 20th, 2025. I would now like to turn the conference over to Christy LaSalem, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Welcome to the fourth quarter 2024 earnings call for New York Mortgage Trust. A press release and supplemental financial presentation with New York Mortgage Trust fourth quarter 2024 results was released yesterday. Both the press release and supplemental financial presentation are available on the company's website at www.nymtrust.com. Additionally, we are hosting a live webcast of today's call, which you can access in the events and presentation section of the company's website. At this time, management would like me to inform you that certain statements made during the conference call, which are not historical, may be deemed forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Although New York Mortgage Trust believes the expectations reflected in any forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, it can give no assurance that expectations will be attained. Factors and risk that could cause actual results to differ materially from expectations are detailed in yesterday's press release and from time to time in the company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Now, at this time, I would like to introduce Jason Serrano, Chief Executive Officer. Jason, please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you for joining New York Mortgage Fund's fourth quarter earnings call. Joining me today is Nick Ma, President, and Christine Nario, CFO. As I discussed a full year recap and insights in 2025, Christine will provide commentary on fourth quarter results, and Nick will follow with an update to our portfolio positioning and focus. After a restrictive monetary campaign by the Fed that began in early 2022 to slow inflation, the policy stands reversed in 2024 with 100 basis points of rate cuts. However, mortgage rates remained elevated as the market focused on the supply side of heavy treasury issuance calendar for years to come. With the new administration, the market will be attempting to assess the benefits of new policies against the current forecast of slowing macroeconomic data. For example, the benefits of onshoring manufacturing jobs and deregulation to spur economic growth may be neutralized by a slowing economy reinforced by cuts to the federal spending. When looked directly at the U.S. housing fundamentals, the market continues to show signs of resiliency with strong fundamentals. Due to low average mortgage rates held by the U.S. homeowners of just over 4%, the higher rate environment will continue to keep housing supply in check. Stable housing trends and the presence of a positive sloping yield curve have the potential to enhance company earnings. This can be achieved by focusing on sustainable reoccurring income through strategic deployment of excess liquidity. With this goal in 2024, the company's portfolio grew by 44% relative to the same time in 2023. driven by $4.1 billion of acquisitions and primarily liquid agency bonds and through higher spread bridge loans. As a result, the adjusted interest income rose 60% year over year. After consideration of financing costs, adjusted net interest income contributed $0.36 to EPS in Q4, a $0.10 improvement from a year earlier. Strong balance sheet growth in 2024 was necessary following a period of low investment activity for the company. This period also allowed us to execute a significant portfolio restructuring center around the divestment of our underperforming multifamily JV equity holdings. We explained back in early 2022 that the effort would take time to complete and that we would be patient in our approach to focus on medium to long-term value for our shareholders. We are happy to note that we reached the final stages of this plan last year. In 2024, we issued six securitizations and kicked off 2025 with an issuance of a detailed BRIC securitization. Alongside an $83 million baby bond issuance earlier in January, we continue to pursue attractive funding strategies to allow for prudent growth in our investment portfolio. Our goal is to focus on accessing non-recourse, non-market-to-market leverage so we can efficiently access the company's excess liquidity, totaling $343 million at the end of the year. Despite substantial growth in our portfolio, we were able to control costs with expense reduction plans to keep our G&A just above 3%. We believe our execution in the year provides the company with increased portfolio flexibility to pursue and optimize returns in 2025. And we look forward to accomplishing this task over the year. Given this dynamic, we believe the NYMT share price presents compelling value with embedded upside as our recurring earnings continue to improve. As illustrated on page 10 of our Q4 supplemental, MY&T shares traded at a 41% discount to adjust the book value at year end. Market capitalization was 90% covered by the company's cash and agency bond portfolio alone, with $388 million of book value or $4.29 per share of potential upside to year end market capitalization. Furthermore, the company's balance sheet holds $272 million or $3.05 per share and net discount to par assets, which can be recaptured through paydowns reversing the held discount. With additional income growth through access to the excess liquidity and utilization of our securitization market, we see significant value upside to our current market capitalization levels, especially after consideration of a 13% plus dividend yield. At this time, I'll pass the call over to Christine to provide for fourth quarter financial highlights. Christine?