speaker
Company Representative
Investor Relations

continued strength in our earnings available for distribution, or EAD. This performance was supported by earnings growth at our home, despite a volatile quarter, which resulted in our EAD once again exceeding our increased dividend level. Reflecting this ongoing improvement in earnings, we announced our fourth dividend increase since the beginning of 2025, raising our quarterly dividend to $0.24 per share. Moving to our financial results, Book value decreased 4.9% to $9.97 per share, resulting in a negative 2.6% economic return when considering our $0.24 dividend. We reported a gap net loss of approximately $8.7 million, or $0.27 per share, entirely driven by net unrealized losses on our investment portfolio, which were partially offset by gains on our hedge portfolio and investment in our home. Overall, these unrealized losses reflect the March macroeconomic volatility, which drove rates higher and caused spreads to widen. Despite these unrealized losses, which have begun to retrace in April, the company's operating performance remains strong, delivering durable net interest income, earnings growth at our comb, and a controlled expense load, all of which supported our increased dividend and demonstrate the embedded value of our strategy. Specifically, EAD of 26 cents per share increased from the prior quarter and fully covered our 24-cent dividend. Net interest income, including hedge income, was 67 cents, which exceeded 45 cents of operating expenses and preferred dividends to generate net earnings of 22 cents per share. Our column contributed an additional 4 cents to EAD, driven by continued strength in origination volumes and improved gain-on-sale margins. While the performance of our investment portfolio and ARC Home delivered a double-digit ROE on book value, we see meaningful upside as we optimize the balance sheet. Specifically, the deployment of liquidity from unlevered home equity loans and the resolution of non-accrual commercial loans represent clear catalysts to deploy capital into higher-yielding residential investments, further enhancing shareholder returns. Lastly, we ended the quarter with approximately $100 million consisting of $49 million in cash, $50 million of committed financing on unlevered home equity loans, and $1 million of unencumbered agency RMBS. This concludes our prepared remarks, and we now like to open the call for questions. Operator?

speaker
Operator
Conference Operator

Thank you. At this time, if you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad now. To withdraw yourself from the queue, you may press star 2. Again, to ask a question, that is star 1 on your telephone keypad. One moment while we queue. We'll take our first question from Doug Harder with BTIG. Your line is open. Please go ahead.

speaker
Doug Harder
Analyst, BTIG

Thanks. Can you talk about your thoughts on continuing to increase the dividend versus some ability to retain some capital, just given your commentary that you expect further upside in earnings power?

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