Angel Oak Mortgage REIT, Inc.

and welcome to the Angel Oak Mortgage REIT fourth quarter 2024 earnings conference call. All participants will be in listen-only mode. Should you need assistance, please signal a conference specialist by pressing star then zero on your telephone keypad. After today's presentation, there will be an opportunity to ask questions. To ask a question, you may press star then one on your telephone keypad. To withdraw your question, please press star then two. Please note this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to Mr. Casey Kelleher. Please go ahead.

Good morning. Thank you for joining us today for Angel Oak Mortgage REIT's fourth quarter and full year 2024 earnings conference call. This morning, we filed our press release detailing these results, which is available in the investors section of our website at www.angeloak.com. As a reminder, remarks made on today's conference call may include forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from those discussed today. We do not undertake any obligation to update our forward-looking statements in light of new information or future events. For a more detailed discussion of the factors that may affect the company's results, please refer to our earnings release for this quarter and to our most recent SEC filings. During this call, we will be discussing certain non-GAAP financial measures. More information about these non-GAAP financial measures and reconciliations to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures are contained in our earnings release and SEC filings. This morning's conference call is hosted by Angel Oak Mortgage REIT's Chief Executive Officer, Srini Prabhu, Chief Financial Officer, Brandon Filson, and Angel Oak Capital's Co-CIO, Namit Sinha. Management will make some prepared comments, after which we will open up the call to your questions. Additionally, we recommend reviewing our earnings supplement posted on our website, www.angelokereit.com. Now I will turn the call over to Srini.

Thank you, Casey, and thank you all for joining us today. We closed out 2024 with another quarter of net interest margin expansion, reflecting solid financial and operational performance. Our continued progress, increasing cash flow and dividend coverage, is a direct result of companies' disciplined execution of a proven and repeatable management model, designed to drive consistent, sustainable growth. Our focus remains on prioritizing long-term earnings accretion, methodical decision-making, managing risk, and creating value for our shareholders. With this commitment, we have continued to perform in line with our growth expectations quarter after quarter throughout 2024. Unfortunately, rates were not kind to our portfolio valuation during Q4, and we saw decline in book value during the quarter. Interest rate levels and volatility are a key driver to evaluation of our portfolio and change according to latest macroeconomic data points. So we may continue to experience these ups and downs from a valuation perspective as long as the rate paths remain uncertain. The advancements we have made in the past year continue to underscore the strength of our differentiated operating model. At its core is prudent risk management and efficient capital recycling with credit selection serving as a key competitive advantage. We have continued to deliver sequential improvements driven by intelligent loan portfolio management, a consistent securitization strategy, and disciplined execution. In 2024, we completed five securitizations exceeding our target of one per quarter which in turn enhance our capital flexibility, increase portfolio yield, and fund further loan portfolio growth. The long-term backdrop of our business remains constructive, and we are encouraged by our portfolio's trajectory. Interest rates appear to have moderated from their peak in December, though further rate cuts seem more elusive now than they were in the prior quarter. We have not seen consistent momentum in one direction or other in terms of mortgage rates. We observed increased activity along with improved execution and securitizations in 2024, particularly in the non-QM space. This drove tightening spreads throughout the year as well. We view the current environment as active and deep, offering up ample opportunities to recycle capital, and continue growing our target asset portfolio. Our capital deployment strategy will remain adaptive and flexible, aligning with evolving market dynamics in order to maximize returns. Regarding raising capital, our approach remains to raise funds opportunistically and when it provides additional earnings. This allows us to maintain flexibility and ensure that the investment decisions are accretive and value-driven over near-term and long-term. We demonstrated the success of this approach with our senior unsecured note issuance this year, which was accretive to earnings within one quarter of issuance and continues to add to net interest margin with further loan purchases and securitization activity. As we move forward, our focus remains on continuing to execute against our earnings generation model and delivering positive outcomes for our shareholders. while positioning our balance sheet to capitalize on emerging accretive opportunities as they arise. With that, I'll turn it over to Brandon, who will walk us through our fourth quarter and full year financial performance in greater detail.