Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corporation

Good day and welcome to the Cherry Hill Investment Mortgage Corporation's first quarter 2026 conference call. At this time, all participants are in listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question, you will need to press star 11 on your touchtone telephone. Please note this call is being recorded. I would like to turn the call over to Garrett Edson, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

We'd like to thank you for joining us today for Cherry Hill Mortgage Investment Corporation's first quarter 2026 conference call. In advance of this call, we issued a press release that was distributed earlier this afternoon. That press release and a first quarter 2026 investor presentation have been posted to the investor relations section of our website at www.chmiread.com. On today's call, management's prepared remarks and answers to your questions may contain forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ from those discussed today. Examples of forward-looking statements include those related to interest income, financial guidance, IRRs, future expected cash flows, as well as prepayment and recapture rates, delinquencies, and non-GAAP financial measures such as earnings available for distribution or EAD, and comprehensive income. Forward-looking statements represent management's current estimates, and Cherry Hill assumes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in the future. We encourage listeners to review the more detailed discussions related to these forward-looking statements contained in the company's filings with the SEC and the definitions contained in the financial presentations available on the company's website. Today's conference call is hosted by Jay Lown, President and CEO, Julian Evans, the Chief Investment Officer, and Apeksha Patel, the Chief Financial Officer. Now, I will turn the call over to Jay.

Thanks, Garrett, and welcome to our first quarter 2026 earnings call. The impact to markets from geopolitical events globally drove performance for the first quarter of this year. On our prior call in late February, the environment felt very much like the second half of 2025 in terms of relative stability. A few days later, we were at war with Iran. Oil and gas prices spiked. Inflation expectations followed in concert and the potential for future rate cuts this year quickly fell by the wayside. Mortgage spreads promptly widened and the yield curve flattened as a result of the increased volatility. Specific to Cherry Hill, as the geopolitical uncertainty unfolded, we acted quickly and we believe appropriately to protect the company by focusing on the risk that were within our control. We managed our interest rate exposure in March well, which we believe helped mitigate the impact to book value at the end of March. All things considered, we believe we performed well in the quarter on a relative basis. Subsequent to quarter end, markets have responded favorably to a potential end to the conflict And that has been a positive catalyst for agency-focused REITs, as noted by peers. That said, we are monitoring everything closely, as markets will likely remain turbulent until the geopolitical situation has fully settled. For the first quarter, we generated GAAP net loss applicable to common stockholders of 5 cents per diluted share. Book value per common share finished the quarter at $3.23, compared to $3.44 on December 31st, down 6.1% for the quarter. Economic return for the quarter was negative 3.2%. On an NAV basis, which includes preferred stock, NAV was down 7.9 million, or 3.3% relative to December 31st. The national average at the end of the quarter remained relatively consistent at 5.5 times as we continue to stay prudently levered. We ended the quarter with 47 million of unrestricted cash on the balance sheet, maintaining a solid liquidity profile. In addition, our strategic partnership and investment with Real Genius, a Florida-based digital mortgage technology company, continues to progress in line with our expectations. As we move through the year, we expect the market will remain volatile for at least the near term until there is stability in the Middle East. We remain focused on proactively managing our portfolio through this challenging period, while continuing to seek out additional investment opportunities we believe would be accretive to our business. With that, I'll turn the call over to Julian, who will cover more details regarding our investment portfolio and its performance for the first quarter.