MTGE 3/31/2013 Form 10Q



UNITED STATES
SECURITIES AND EXCHANGE COMMISSION
Washington, D.C. 20549
 
FORM 10-Q
 
ý
QUARTERLY REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934
For the quarterly period ended March 31, 2013
OR
o
TRANSITION REPORT PURSUANT TO SECTION 13 OR 15(D) OF
THE SECURITIES EXCHANGE ACT OF 1934

Commission file number 001-35260

AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
(Exact name of registrant as specified in its charter)
 
Maryland
 
45-0907772
(State or Other Jurisdiction of
Incorporation or Organization)
 
(I.R.S. Employer
Identification No.)
2 Bethesda Metro Center
14th Floor
Bethesda, Maryland 20814
(Address of principal executive offices)
(301) 968-9220
(Registrant's telephone number, including area code) 
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant (1) has filed all reports to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter earlier period that the registrant was required to file such reports), and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days.    Yes  ý    No  ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T (§232.405 of this chapter) during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the registrant was required to submit and post such files).    
Yes ý   No  ¨
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See definition of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer
ý
 
Accelerated filer
o
 
 
 
 
 
Non-accelerated filer
o
(Do not check if a smaller reporting company)
Smaller Reporting Company
o
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act).    Yes  ¨    No  ý
The number of shares of the issuer’s common stock, $0.01 par value, outstanding as of May 1, 2013 was 58,971,999.
 




AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


1



PART I
Item 1. Financial Statements
    

AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS
(in thousands, except per share amounts)

                     
 
March 31, 2013

December 31, 2012
 
(unaudited)
 
(audited)
Assets:
 
 
 
Agency securities, at fair value (including pledged securities of $6,014,294 and $6,276,993, respectively)
$
6,535,598

 
$
6,367,042

Non-agency securities, at fair value (including pledged securities of $547,736 and $545,665, respectively)
727,351

 
681,403

Cash and cash equivalents
311,252

 
157,314

Restricted cash and cash equivalents
32,158

 
28,493

Interest receivable
19,209

 
18,265

Derivative assets, at fair value
52,149

 
23,043

Receivable for securities sold
121,816

 

Receivable under reverse repurchase agreements
1,563,334

 
418,888

Other assets
480

 
1,692

Total assets
$
9,363,347

 
$
7,696,140

Liabilities:
 
 
 
Repurchase agreements
$
6,137,343

 
$
6,245,791

Payable for securities purchased
96,200

 

Derivative liabilities, at fair value
77,997

 
63,726

Dividend payable
53,075

 
32,368

Obligation to return securities borrowed under reverse repurchase agreements, at fair value
1,558,429

 
421,077

Accounts payable and other accrued liabilities
10,476

 
7,616

Total liabilities
7,933,520

 
6,770,578

Stockholders’ equity:
 
 
 
Preferred stock, $0.01 par value; 50,000 shares authorized, 0 shares issued and outstanding, respectively

 

Common stock, $0.01 par value; 300,000 shares authorized, 58,972 and 35,964 shares issued and outstanding, respectively
590

 
360

Additional paid-in capital
1,355,687

 
772,008

Retained earnings
73,550

 
153,194

Total stockholders’ equity
1,429,827

 
925,562

Total liabilities and stockholders’ equity
$
9,363,347

 
$
7,696,140

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.


2



AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS
(in thousands, except per share data)
(unaudited)
 
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Interest income:
 
 
 
 
Agency securities
 
$
40,183

 
$
15,306

Non-agency securities
 
11,293

 
1,271

Other
 
91

 
25

Interest expense
 
(8,036
)
 
(1,664
)
Net interest income
 
43,531

 
14,938

 
 
 
 
 
Other gains (losses):
 
 
 
 
Realized gain on agency securities, net
 
8,674

 
5,971

Realized gain on non-agency securities, net
 
1,419

 

Realized loss on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net
 
(7,734
)
 
(1,041
)
Realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net
 
(2,448
)
 
562

Unrealized gain (loss) on agency securities, net
 
(78,840
)
 
4,006

Unrealized gain on non-agency securities, net
 
30,478

 
2,411

Unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net
 

 
3,384

Unrealized loss on other derivatives and securities, net
 
(15,251
)
 
(6,785
)
Total other gains (losses), net
 
(63,702
)
 
8,508

 
 
 
 
 
Expenses:
 
 
 
 
Management fees
 
4,444

 
1,082

General and administrative expenses
 
1,777

 
1,035

Total expenses
 
6,221

 
2,117

 
 
 
 
 
Income (loss) before excise tax
 
(26,392
)
 
21,329

Excise tax
 
177

 
9

Net income (loss)
 
$
(26,569
)
 
$
21,320

 
 
 
 
 
Net income (loss) per common share—basic and diluted
 
$
(0.56
)
 
$
1.82

 
 
 
 
 
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding—basic and diluted
 
47,469

 
11,724

 
 
 
 
 
Dividends declared per common share
 
$
0.90

 
$
0.90

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.


3



AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF STOCKHOLDERS’ EQUITY
(in thousands)
(unaudited)

 
 
Preferred Stock
 
Common Stock
 
Additional
Paid-in
Capital
 
Retained
Earnings
 
Total
 
Shares
 
Amount
 
Shares
 
Amount
 
Balance, December 31, 2011

 
$

 
10,006

 
$
100

 
$
199,038

 
$
9,663

 
$
208,801

Net income

 

 

 

 

 
21,320

 
21,320

Issuance of common stock

 

 
12,000

 
120

 
258,201

 

 
258,321

Issuance of restricted stock

 

 
6

 

 

 

 

Stock-based compensation

 

 

 

 
16

 

 
16

Common dividends declared

 

 

 

 

 
(9,011
)
 
(9,011
)
Balance, March 31, 2012

 
$

 
22,012

 
$
220

 
$
457,255

 
$
21,972

 
$
479,447

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Balance, December 31, 2012

 
$

 
35,964

 
$
360

 
$
772,008

 
$
153,194

 
$
925,562

Net loss

 

 

 

 

 
(26,569
)
 
(26,569
)
Issuance of common stock

 

 
23,000

 
230

 
583,650

 

 
583,880

Issuance of restricted stock

 

 
8

 

 

 

 

Stock-based compensation

 

 

 

 
29

 

 
29

Common dividends declared

 

 

 

 

 
(53,075
)
 
(53,075
)
Balance, March 31, 2013

 
$

 
58,972

 
$
590

 
$
1,355,687

 
$
73,550

 
$
1,429,827

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.


4



AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS
(in thousands)
(unaudited)
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
2013
 
2012
CASH FLOWS FROM OPERATING ACTIVITIES:

 
 
Net income (loss)
$
(26,569
)
 
$
21,320

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash flows from operating activities:
 
 
 
Amortization of net premium on agency securities
8,923

 
2,659

Accretion of net discount on non-agency securities
(7,071
)
 
(1,421
)
Unrealized loss (gain) on securities and derivatives, net
63,612

 
(2,307
)
Realized gain on agency securities, net
(8,674
)
 
(5,971
)
Realized gain on non-agency securities, net
(1,419
)
 

Realized loss (gain) on derivatives and securities, net
10,182

 
(562
)
Stock-based compensation
29

 
16

Increase in interest receivable
(944
)
 
(5,537
)
Decrease in other assets
1,212

 
103

Increase in accounts payable and other accrued liabilities
2,860

 
504

Net cash flows from operating activities
42,141

 
8,804

CASH FLOWS USED IN INVESTING ACTIVITIES:
 
 
 
Purchases of agency securities
(2,291,656
)
 
(2,585,473
)
Purchases of non-agency securities
(39,476
)
 
(96,074
)
Proceeds from sale of agency securities
1,873,234

 
571,428

Principal collections on agency securities
145,161

 
37,667

Principal collections on non-agency securities
21,070

 
2,151

Purchases of non-agency securities underlying Linked Transactions

 
(6,589
)
Proceeds from sale of non-agency securities
11,425

 

Principal collections on non-agency securities underlying Linked Transactions

 
1,987

Purchases of U.S. Treasury securities to cover short sale
(1,097,151
)
 
(1,015,802
)
Proceeds from short sale of U.S. Treasury securities
2,221,442

 
1,092,521

Payments of reverse repurchase agreements
(35,186,322
)
 
(368,914
)
Proceeds from reverse repurchase agreements
34,041,876

 
296,483

Purchases of U.S. Treasury securities

 
(50,167
)
Proceeds from sale of U.S. Treasury securities

 
49,902

Payment of premiums for interest rate swaptions
(16,082
)
 
(3,881
)
Increase in restricted cash and cash equivalents
(3,665
)
 
(18,028
)
Net payments on other derivatives
(11,126
)
 
(4,727
)
  Net cash flows used in investing activities
(331,270
)
 
(2,097,516
)
CASH FLOWS FROM FINANCING ACTIVITIES:
 
 
 
Dividends paid
(32,368
)
 
(8,005
)
Proceeds from common stock offerings, net of offering costs
583,880

 
258,321

Proceeds from repurchase agreements
11,039,027

 
4,225,558

Repayments on repurchase agreements
(11,147,475
)
 
(2,368,087
)
Proceeds from repurchase agreements underlying Linked Transactions

 
91,735

Repayments of repurchase agreements underlying Linked Transactions

 
(89,077
)
Net cash flow from financing activities
443,064

 
2,110,445

Net increase in cash and cash equivalents
153,935

 
21,733

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of the period
157,317

 
57,428

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period
$
311,252

 
$
79,161

Supplemental non-cash investing and financing activities:
 
 
 
Non-agency securities recorded upon de-linking of Linked Transactions
$

 
$
6,215

Repurchase agreements recorded upon de-linking of Linked Transactions
$

 
$
3,646

See accompanying notes to consolidated financial statements.

5



AMERICAN CAPITAL MORTGAGE INVESTMENT CORP.
NOTES TO CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS
(unaudited)

Note 1. Unaudited Interim Consolidated Financial Statements

The interim consolidated financial statements of American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. (together with its consolidated subsidiary, American Capital Mortgage Investment TRS, LLC, is referred to throughout this report as the “Company”, “we”, “us” and “our”) are prepared in accordance with U.S. generally accepted accounting principles (“GAAP”) for interim financial information and pursuant to the requirements for reporting on Form 10-Q and Article 10 of Regulation S-X. The preparation of financial statements in conformity with GAAP requires management to make estimates and assumptions that affect the reported amounts of assets and liabilities and disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities at the date of the financial statements and the reported amounts of income and expenses during the reporting period. Actual results could differ from those estimates.

Our interim unaudited consolidated financial statements include the accounts of our wholly-owned subsidiary, American Capital Mortgage Investment TRS, LLC. As of March 31, 2013, there has been no activity in American Capital Mortgage Investment TRS, LLC.

In the opinion of management, all adjustments, consisting solely of normal recurring accruals, necessary for the fair presentation of financial statements for the interim period have been included. The current period’s results of operations are not necessarily indicative of results that ultimately may be achieved for the year.
Note 2. Organization
We were incorporated in Maryland on March 15, 2011 and commenced operations on August 9, 2011 following the completion of our initial public offering (“IPO”). We are externally managed by American Capital MTGE Management, LLC (our “Manager”), an affiliate of American Capital, Ltd. ("American Capital"). We do not have any employees. Our common stock is traded on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol “MTGE.”
We invest in, finance and manage a leveraged portfolio of mortgage-related investments, which we define to include agency mortgage investments, non-agency mortgage investments and other mortgage-related investments. Agency mortgage investments include residential mortgage pass-through certificates and collateralized mortgage obligations (“CMOs”) structured from residential mortgage pass-through certificates for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a government-sponsored entity (“GSE”), such as the Federal National Mortgage Association (“Fannie Mae”) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”), or by a U.S. Government agency, such as the Government National Mortgage Association ("Ginnie Mae”). Non-agency mortgage investments include residential mortgage-backed securities (“RMBS”) backed by residential mortgages that are not guaranteed by a GSE or U.S. Government agency. Non-agency mortgage investments may also include prime and non-prime residential mortgage loans. Other mortgage-related investments may include commercial mortgage-backed securities (“CMBS”), commercial mortgage loans, mortgage-related derivatives and other mortgage-related investments.
Our objective is to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns to our stockholders over the long-term through a combination of dividends and net book value appreciation. In pursuing this objective, we rely on our Manager's expertise to construct and manage a diversified mortgage investment portfolio by identifying asset classes that, when properly financed and hedged, are designed to produce attractive returns across a variety of market conditions and economic cycles, considering the risks associated with owning such investments.
We have elected to be taxed as a real estate investment trust (“REIT”) under the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended (the “Internal Revenue Code”). As such, we are required to distribute annually at least 90% of our taxable net income. As long as we continue to qualify as a REIT, we will generally not be subject to U.S. federal or state corporate taxes on our taxable net income to the extent that we distribute all of our annual taxable net income to our stockholders. It is our intention to distribute 100% of our taxable income, after application of available tax attributes, within the time limits prescribed by the Internal Revenue Code, which may extend into the subsequent taxable year.

6



Note 3. Summary of Significant Accounting Policies

Fair Value of Financial Assets
We have elected the option to account for all of our financial assets, including all mortgage-related investments, at estimated fair value, with changes in fair value reflected in income during the period in which they occur. In management's view, this election more appropriately reflects the results of our operations for a particular reporting period, as financial asset fair value changes are presented in a manner consistent with the presentation and timing of the fair value changes of economic hedging instruments. See Note 9 - Fair Value Measurements.
Interest Income
Interest income is accrued based on the outstanding principal amount of the securities and their contractual terms. Premiums and discounts associated with the purchase of agency securities and non-agency securities of high credit quality are amortized or accreted into interest income over the projected lives of the securities, including contractual payments and estimated prepayments, using the effective interest method. We estimate long-term prepayment speeds using a third-party service and market data.
The third-party service estimates prepayment speeds for our securities using models that incorporate the mortgage rates, age, size and loan-to-value ratios of the outstanding underlying loans, as well as current mortgage rates, forward yield curves, volatility and other factors. We review the prepayment speeds estimated by the third-party service and compare the results to market consensus prepayment speeds, if available. We also consider historical prepayment speeds and current market conditions to validate the reasonableness of the prepayment speeds estimated by the third-party service, and based on our Manager’s judgment, we may make adjustments to their estimates. Actual and anticipated prepayment experience is reviewed at least quarterly and effective yields are recalculated when differences arise between the previously estimated future prepayments and the amounts actually received plus current anticipated future prepayments. If the actual and anticipated future prepayment experience differs from our prior estimate of prepayments, we are required to record an adjustment in the current period to the amortization or accretion of premiums and discounts for the cumulative difference in the effective yield through the reporting date.
At the time we purchase non-agency securities and loans that are not of high credit quality, we determine an effective yield based on our estimate of the timing and amount of future cash flows and our cost basis. Our initial cash flow estimates for these investments are based on our observations of current information and events and include assumptions related to interest rates, prepayment rates and the timing and amount of credit losses. On at least a quarterly basis, we review the estimated cash flows and make appropriate adjustments, based on input and analysis received from external sources, internal models, and our judgment about interest rates, prepayment rates, the timing and amount of credit losses, and other factors. Any resulting changes in effective yield are recognized prospectively based on the current amortized cost of the investment as adjusted for credit impairment, if any.
Repurchase Agreements
We finance the acquisition of agency securities and certain non-agency securities for our investment portfolio through repurchase transactions under master repurchase agreements. We account for repurchase transactions, other than those treated as Linked Transactions (see Derivatives below), as collateralized financing transactions which are carried at their contractual amounts, including accrued interest, as specified in the respective transaction agreements. The contractual amounts approximate fair value due to their short-term nature.
Derivatives
We maintain a risk management strategy, under which we may use a variety of derivative instruments to economically hedge some of our exposure to market risks, including interest rate risk, prepayment risk, extension risk and credit risk. The objective of our risk management strategy is to reduce fluctuations in net book value over a range of market conditions. The principal instruments that we currently use are interest rate swaps, options to enter into interest rate swaps (“interest rate swaptions”), U.S. Treasury securities, and to-be-announced forward contracts (“TBAs”). In the future, we may also use forward contracts for specified agency securities, U.S. Treasury futures contracts and put or call options on TBA securities. We may also invest in other types of mortgage derivatives, such as interest-only securities, credit default swaps and synthetic total return swaps.

7



We also enter into TBA contracts as a means of investing in and financing agency securities. Pursuant to TBA contracts, we agree to purchase, for future delivery, agency securities with certain principal and interest terms and certain types of collateral, but the particular agency securities to be delivered are not identified until shortly before the TBA settlement date. We also may choose, prior to settlement, to move the settlement of these securities out to a later date by entering into an offsetting short position (referred to as a "pair off"), net settling the paired off positions for cash, and simultaneously purchasing a similar TBA contract for a later settlement date. This transaction is commonly referred to as a “dollar roll.” The agency securities purchased for a forward settlement date are typically priced at a discount to agency securities for settlement in the current month. This difference (or discount) is referred to as the “price drop.” The price drop is the economic equivalent of net interest carry income on the underlying agency securities over the roll period (interest income less implied financing cost) and is commonly referred to as "dollar roll income." Consequently, forward purchases of agency securities and dollar roll transactions represent a form of off-balance sheet financing.
We recognize all derivatives instruments as either assets or liabilities on the balance sheet, measured at fair value. As we have not designated any derivatives as hedging instruments, all changes in fair value are reported in earnings in our consolidated statements of operations in unrealized loss on other derivatives and securities, net during the period in which they occur. Derivatives in a gain position are reported as derivative assets at fair value and derivatives in a loss position are reported as derivative liabilities at fair value in our consolidated balance sheet. In our consolidated statements of cash flows, cash receipts and payments related to derivative instruments are classified according to the underlying nature or purpose of the derivative transaction, generally in the investing section for derivatives not designated in hedging relationships.
Our derivative agreements generally contain provisions that allow for netting or setting off derivative assets and liabilities with each counterparty; however, we report related assets and liabilities on a gross basis in our consolidated balance sheets.
The use of derivatives creates exposure to credit risk relating to potential losses that could be recognized in the event that the counterparties to these instruments fail to perform their obligations under the contracts. We attempt to minimize this risk by limiting our counterparties to major financial institutions with acceptable credit ratings, monitoring positions with individual counterparties and adjusting posted collateral as required.
Interest rate swap agreements
We use interest rate swaps to hedge the variable cash flows associated with short-term borrowings made under our repurchase agreement facilities. We estimate the fair value of interest rate swaps using a combination of inputs from counterparty and third-party pricing models. The counterparty and third-party pricing models estimate the net present value of the future cash flows using a forward yield curve in effect as of the end of the measurement period. We also incorporate both our own and our counterparties’ nonperformance risk in estimating the fair value of our interest rate swaps. In considering the effect of nonperformance risk, we consider the impact of netting and credit enhancements, such as collateral postings and guarantees, and have concluded that our own and our counterparty risk is not significant to the overall valuation of these agreements. The payment of periodic settlements of net interest on interest rate swaps are reported in realized gain (loss) on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net in our consolidated statements of operations. Cash payments received or paid for the early termination of an interest rate swap agreement are recorded as realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations. Changes in fair value of our interest rate swap agreements are reported in unrealized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations.
Interest rate swaptions
We purchase interest rate swaptions to help mitigate the potential impact of larger increases or decreases in interest rates on the performance of our investment portfolio. The interest rate swaptions provide us the option to enter into an interest rate swap agreement for a predetermined notional amount, stated term and pay or receive interest rates in the future. The premium paid for interest rate swaptions is reported as a derivative asset in our consolidated balance sheets. We estimate the fair value of interest rate swaptions based on the fair value of the future interest rate swap that we have the option to enter into as well as the remaining length of time that we have to exercise the option. The difference between the premium and the fair value of the swaption is reported in unrealized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations. If a swaption expires unexercised, the realized loss on the swaption would be equal to the premium paid and reported in realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations. If we exercise a swaption, the realized gain or loss on the swaption would be equal to the difference between the fair value of the underlying interest rate swap and the premium paid and reported in realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations.

8



We estimate the fair value of interest rate swaptions using a combination of inputs from counterparty and third-party pricing models based on the fair value of the future interest rate swap that we have the option to enter into as well as the remaining length of time that we have to exercise the option, adjusted for non-performance risk, if any.
TBA securities
A TBA security is a forward contract for the purchase ("long position") or sale ("short position") of agency MBS at a predetermined price, face amount, issuer, coupon and stated maturity on an agreed-upon future date. The specific agency MBS delivered into the contract upon the settlement date, published each month by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, are not known at the time of the transaction. We enter into TBA contracts as a means of hedging against short-term changes in interest rates. We may also enter into TBA contracts as a means of acquiring agency securities and we may from time to time utilize TBA dollar roll transactions to finance agency MBS purchases.
We account for TBA contracts as derivatives since we cannot assert that it is probable at the inception and throughout the term of the contract that it will not settle net and will result in physical delivery of an agency security when it is issued. A TBA dollar roll transaction is a series of derivative transactions. The net settlement of a TBA contract is reported as realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net and changes in the fair value of our TBA contracts are reported as unrealized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statement of operations.
We estimate the fair value of TBA securities based on similar methods used to value our agency MBS securities.

Linked Transactions
If we finance the purchase of securities with repurchase agreements with the same counterparty from whom the securities are purchased and both transactions are entered into contemporaneously or in contemplation of each other, the transactions are presumed not to meet sale accounting criteria. We will account for the purchase of such securities and the repurchase agreement on a net basis and record a forward purchase commitment to purchase securities (each, a “Linked Transaction”) at fair value on our consolidated balance sheets in the line item Linked Transactions, at fair value. Changes in the fair value of the assets and liabilities underlying the Linked Transactions and associated interest income and expense are reported as unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net on our consolidated statements of operations. If we subsequently finance the securities in a Linked Transaction with a different counterparty, we will regard it as an acquisition of a security and the repurchase financing as a collateralized financing transaction.
Forward commitments to purchase or sell specified securities
We may enter into a forward commitment to purchase or sell specified securities as a means of acquiring assets or as a hedge against short-term changes in interest rates. Contracts for the purchase or sale of specified securities are accounted for as derivatives if the delivery of the specified security and settlement extends beyond the period generally established by regulation or convention for that type of security. Realized gains and losses associated with forward commitments are recognized in the line item realized gain on other derivatives and securities, net and unrealized gains and losses are recognized in unrealized loss on other derivatives and securities, net on our consolidated statements of operations. We estimate the fair value of forward commitments to purchase or sell specified mortgage-backed securities based on methods used to value our mortgage-backed securities, as well as the remaining length of time of the forward commitment.
U.S. Treasury securities
We may purchase or sell short U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. Treasury futures contracts to help mitigate the potential impact of changes in interest rates on the performance of our portfolio. We may borrow securities to cover short sales of U.S. Treasury securities under reverse repurchase agreements. We account for these as securities borrowing transactions and recognize an obligation to return the borrowed securities at fair value on our consolidated balance sheets based on the value of the underlying borrowed securities as of the reporting date. Realized gains and losses associated with purchases and short sales of U.S. Treasury securities are recognized in realized gain on other derivatives and securities, net, and unrealized gains and losses are recognized in unrealized loss on other derivatives and securities, net, on our consolidated statement of operations.

9



Note 4. Agency Securities
The following tables summarize our investments in agency securities as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
Fannie Mae
 
Freddie Mac
 
Total
Fixed-rate agency securities:
 
 
 
 
 
Agency securities, par
$
4,834,647

 
$
1,282,887

 
$
6,117,534

Unamortized premium
293,959

 
65,672

 
359,631

Amortized cost
5,128,606

 
1,348,559

 
6,477,165

Gross unrealized gains
58,116

 
13,969

 
72,085

Gross unrealized losses
(10,055
)
 
(3,597
)
 
(13,652
)
Fixed-rate agency securities, at fair value
$
5,176,667

 
$
1,358,931

 
$
6,535,598

 
 
 
 
 
 
Weighted average coupon as of March 31, 2013
3.53
%
 
3.46
%
 
3.51
%
Weighted average yield as of March 31, 2013
2.54
%
 
2.68
%
 
2.57
%
Weighted average yield for the three months ended March 31, 2013
2.63
%
 
2.85
%
 
2.67
%

 
As of December 31, 2012
 
Fannie Mae

Freddie Mac

Total
Fixed-rate agency securities:





Agency securities, par
$
4,939,592


$
965,074


$
5,904,666

Unamortized premium
271,729


53,375


325,104

Amortized cost
5,211,321


1,018,449


6,229,770

Gross unrealized gains
114,750


23,543


138,293

Gross unrealized losses
(884
)

(137
)

(1,021
)
Fixed-rate agency securities, at fair value
$
5,325,187


$
1,041,855


$
6,367,042

 
 
 
 



Weighted average coupon as of December 31, 2012
3.40
%

3.57
%

3.43
%
Weighted average yield as of December 31, 2012
2.42
%

2.65
%

2.46
%

10



Actual maturities of agency securities are generally shorter than the stated contractual maturities. Actual maturities are affected by the contractual lives of the underlying mortgages, periodic principal payments and principal prepayments. The following table summarizes our agency securities as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 according to their estimated weighted average life classification (dollars in thousands):

As of March 31, 2013
 
As of December 31, 2012
Weighted Average Life
Fair
Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
 
Fair
Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
Greater than three years and less than or equal to five years
$
1,114,245

 
$
1,093,883

 
2.18
%
 
3.40
%
 
$
1,759,226

 
$
1,731,178

 
1.94
%
 
3.09
%
Greater than five years and less than or equal to 10 years
5,159,000

 
5,121,583

 
2.64
%
 
3.56
%
 
4,484,509

 
4,375,925

 
2.66
%
 
3.57
%
Greater than 10 years
262,353

 
261,699

 
2.74
%
 
3.14
%
 
123,307

 
122,667

 
2.52
%
 
3.12
%
Total
$
6,535,598

 
$
6,477,165

 
2.57
%
 
3.51
%
 
$
6,367,042

 
$
6,229,770

 
2.46
%
 
3.43
%
As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, none of our agency securities had a weighted average life of less than three years and the weighted average life of our agency security portfolio was 7.7 years and 7.0 years, respectively, which incorporates anticipated future prepayment assumptions. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, our weighted average expected constant prepayment rate (“CPR”) over the remaining life of our aggregate agency investment portfolio was 8% and 9%, respectively. Our estimates differ materially for different types of securities and thus individual holdings have a wide range of projected CPRs. We estimate long-term prepayment rates using a third-party service and market data. We review the prepayment speeds estimated by the third-party service and compare the results to market consensus prepayment speeds, if available. We also consider historical prepayment speeds and current market conditions to validate reasonableness. As market conditions may change rapidly, we use our judgment in developing our estimates for different securities. Prepayments are dependent on many factors and actual prepayments could differ materially from our estimates. Various market participants could use materially different assumptions. Furthermore, changes in market conditions such as interest rates, housing prices, and broad economic factors such as employment can materially impact prepayments. Additionally, modifications to GSE underwriting criteria or programs, GSE policies surrounding the buyouts or modifications of delinquent loans or other factors could significantly change the prepayment landscape.
Realized Gains and Losses
The following table summarizes our net realized gains and losses from the sale of agency securities for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 

2013
 
2012
Proceeds from agency securities sold

$
1,873,234

 
$
571,428

Increase (decrease) in receivable for agency securities sold

121,816

 
(198,598
)
Less agency securities sold, at cost

(1,986,376
)
 
(366,859
)
Net realized gains on sale of agency securities

$
8,674

 
$
5,971

 
 
 
 
 
Gross realized gains on sale of agency securities

$
14,627

 
$
5,971

Gross realized losses on sale of agency securities

(5,953
)
 

Net realized gains on sale of agency securities

$
8,674

 
$
5,971


11



Pledged Assets
The following tables summarize our agency securities pledged as collateral under repurchase agreements and derivative agreements by type as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
As of March 31, 2013
Agency Securities Pledged(1)
Fannie Mae
 
Freddie Mac
 
Total
Under Repurchase Agreements
 
 
 
 
 
Fair value
$
5,697,075

 
$
281,493

 
$
5,978,568

Amortized cost
5,646,198

 
275,165

 
5,921,363

Accrued interest on pledged agency securities
15,686

 
771

 
16,457

Under Derivative Agreements
 
 
 
 
 
Fair value
34,376

 
1,350

 
35,726

Amortized cost
33,996

 
1,312

 
35,308

Accrued interest on pledged agency securities
94

 
3

 
97

Total Fair Value of Agency Securities Pledged and Accrued Interest
$
5,747,231

 
$
283,617

 
$
6,030,848


 
As of December 31, 2012
Agency Securities Pledged
Fannie Mae
 
Freddie Mac
 
Total
Under Repurchase Agreements
 
 
 
 
 
Fair value
$
5,919,044

 
$
283,882

 
$
6,202,926

Amortized cost
5,792,535

 
276,380

 
6,068,915

Accrued interest on pledged agency securities
15,662

 
774

 
16,436

Under Derivative Agreements
 
 
 
 

Fair value
68,072

 
5,995

 
74,067

Amortized cost
66,038

 
5,797

 
71,835

Accrued interest on pledged agency securities
183

 
18

 
201

Total Fair Value of Agency Securities Pledged and Accrued Interest
$
6,002,961

 
$
290,669

 
$
6,293,630

—————— 
(1)  
Agency securities pledged do not include pledged amounts of $121.7 million under repurchase agreements related to agency securities sold but not yet settled as of March 31, 2013.

The following table summarizes our agency securities pledged as collateral under repurchase agreements by remaining maturity as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
As of December 31, 2012
Remaining Maturity
Fair Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Accrued Interest on Pledged Agency Securities
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Accrued Interest on Pledged Agency Securities
30 days or less
$
2,132,563

 
$
2,108,536

 
$
6,019

 
$
2,318,609

 
$
2,266,686

 
$
6,401

31 - 59 days
612,375

 
604,169

 
1,673

 
1,968,955

 
1,924,329

 
5,145

60 - 90 days
1,751,785

 
1,739,820

 
4,943

 
1,511,192

 
1,481,403

 
3,837

Greater than 90 days
1,481,845

 
1,468,838

 
3,822

 
404,170

 
396,497

 
1,053

Total
$
5,978,568

 
$
5,921,363

 
$
16,457

 
$
6,202,926

 
$
6,068,915

 
$
16,436


12



Note 5. Non-Agency Securities
The following tables summarize our non-agency security investments as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
As of March 31, 2013
 
 
Fair
  Value
 
Gross Unrealized
 
Amortized Cost
 
Discount
 
Par/ Current Face
 
Weighted Average
Category
 
 
Gains
 
Losses
 
 
 
 
Coupon (1)
 
Yield
Prime
 
$
118,550

 
$
11,744

 
$
(47
)
 
$
106,853

 
$
(30,489
)
 
$
137,342

 
3.21
%
 
7.02
%
Alt-A
 
430,399

 
49,427

 
(262
)
 
381,234

 
(221,851
)
 
603,085

 
1.91
%
 
7.42
%
Option-ARM
 
70,601

 
15,669

 

 
54,932

 
(37,645
)
 
92,577

 
0.60
%
 
8.02
%
Subprime
 
107,801

 
18,896

 
(254
)
 
89,159

 
(127,858
)
 
217,017

 
0.42
%
 
7.91
%
Total
 
$
727,351

 
$
95,736

 
$
(563
)
 
$
632,178

 
$
(417,843
)
 
$
1,050,021

 
1.66
%
 
7.47
%
————————
(1)
Weighted average coupon rates are floating, except for $16.0 million and $18.2 million fair value of prime and Alt-A non-agency securities, respectively, as of March 31, 2013.
As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Fair
  Value
 
Gross Unrealized
 
Amortized Cost
 
Discount
 
Par/ Current Face
 
Weighted Average
Category
 
 
Gains
 
Losses
 
 
 
 
Coupon (1)
 
Yield
Prime
 
$
113,351

 
$
10,338

 
$

 
$
103,013

 
$
(33,406
)
 
$
136,419

 
3.13
%
 
7.15
%
Alt-A
 
403,522

 
30,325

 
(911
)
 
374,108

 
(226,224
)
 
600,332

 
2.02
%
 
7.36
%
Option-ARM
 
68,861

 
12,761

 

 
56,100

 
(38,617
)
 
94,717

 
0.60
%
 
8.08
%
Subprime
 
95,669

 
12,183

 

 
83,486

 
(130,937
)
 
214,423

 
0.38
%
 
7.92
%
Total
 
$
681,403

 
$
65,607

 
$
(911
)
 
$
616,707

 
$
(429,184
)
 
$
1,045,891

 
1.70
%
 
7.47
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
————————
(1)
Weighted average coupon rates are floating, except for $11.3 million and $18.6 million fair value of prime and Alt-A non-agency securities, respectively, as of December 31, 2012.
The following table summarizes our non-agency securities at fair value, by their estimated weighted average life classifications as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
 
 
As of December 31, 2012
Weighted Average Life
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
Less than or equal to five years
 
$
122,611

 
$
114,549

 
6.15
%
 
2.00
%
 
$
90,919

 
$
85,595

 
6.43
%
 
1.53
%
Greater than five years and less than or equal to seven years
 
261,603

 
230,191

 
7.33
%
 
1.82
%
 
324,394

 
290,640

 
7.96
%
 
1.55
%
Greater than seven years
 
343,137

 
287,438

 
8.11
%
 
1.48
%
 
266,090

 
240,472

 
7.24
%
 
2.00
%
Total
 
$
727,351

 
$
632,178

 
7.47
%
 
1.66
%
 
$
681,403

 
$
616,707

 
7.47
%
 
1.70
%

Our Prime securities include senior tranches in securitization trusts issued between 2003 and 2006 and securities with underlying prime collateral that were re-securitized in 2009. Prime mortgage loans are residential mortgage loans that are considered to have the most stringent underwriting standards within the non-agency mortgage market, but do not carry any credit guarantee from either a U.S. government agency or GSE. These loans were originated during a period when underwriting

13



standards were generally weak and housing prices have dropped significantly subsequent to their origination. As a result, there is still material credit risk embedded in these vintages. As of March 31, 2013, our Prime securities have both floating-rate and fixed-rate coupons ranging from 2.5% to 6.5%, with weighted average coupons of underlying collateral ranging from 2.9% to 6.2%.

Our Alt-A securities include senior tranches in securitization trusts issued between 2002 and 2007 and securities with Alt-A collateral that were re-securitized in 2010 and 2011 to add an additional layer of credit support. Alt-A, or alternative A-paper, mortgage loans are considered riskier than prime mortgage loans and less risky than sub-prime mortgage loans and are typically characterized by borrowers with less than full documentation, lower credit scores, higher loan-to-value ratios and a higher percentage of investment properties. As of March 31, 2013, our Alt-A securities have both fixed and floating rate coupons ranging from 0.3% to 6.0% with weighted average coupons of underlying collateral ranging from 2.8% to 6.0%.

Our Option-ARM securities include senior tranches in securitization trusts that are collateralized by residential mortgages that have origination and underwriting characteristics similar to Alt-A mortgage loans, with the added feature of providing underlying mortgage borrowers the option, within certain constraints, to make lower payments than otherwise required by the stated interest rate for a number of years, leading to negative amortization and increased loan balances. This additional feature can increase the credit risk of these securities. As of March 31, 2013, our Option-ARM securities have coupons ranging from 0.4% to 1.1% and have underlying collateral with weighted average coupons between 2.8% and 3.6%. The loans underlying our Option-ARM securities were originated between 2004 and 2007.

Subprime securities include floating rate, senior tranches in securitization trusts collateralized by residential mortgages originated during 2003 and 2007 that were originally considered to be of lower credit quality. As of March 31, 2013, our Subprime securities have floating rate coupons ranging from 0.3% to 1.1% and have underlying collateral with weighted-average coupons ranging from 4.3% to 7.9%.

Our non-agency securities are generally rated below investment grade or have not been rated by credit agencies as of March 31, 2013.
Realized Gains and Losses
The following table summarizes our net realized gains and losses from the sale of non-agency securities for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Proceeds from non-agency securities sold
 
$
11,425

 
$

Less: non-agency securities sold, at cost
 
(10,006
)
 

Net realized gains on sale of non-agency securities
 
$
1,419

 
$

 
 
 
 
 
Gross realized gains on sale of non-agency securities
 
$
1,419

 
$

Gross realized losses on sale of non-agency securities
 

 

Net realized gains on sale of non-agency securities
 
$
1,419

 
$


Pledged Assets
Non-agency securities with a fair value of $547.7 million and $545.7 million were pledged as collateral under repurchase agreements as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, there were no Linked Transactions.
Note 6. Repurchase Agreements
We pledge certain of our securities as collateral under repurchase arrangements with financial institutions, the terms and conditions of which are negotiated on a transaction-by-transaction basis. Interest rates on these borrowings are generally based on LIBOR plus or minus a margin and amounts available to be borrowed are dependent upon the fair value of the securities pledged as collateral, which fluctuates with changes in interest rates, type of security and liquidity conditions within the banking, mortgage finance and real estate industries. In response to declines in fair value of pledged securities, lenders may require us to post additional collateral or pay down borrowings to re-establish agreed upon collateral requirements, referred to

14



as margin calls. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, we have met all margin call requirements and had no repurchase agreements with original overnight maturities. Repurchase agreements are carried at cost, which approximates fair value due to their short-term nature.
The following table summarizes our borrowings under repurchase arrangements and weighted average interest rates classified by original maturities as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands): 


As of March 31, 2013

As of December 31, 2012




Weighted Average



Weighted Average
Original Maturity

Borrowings
Outstanding

Interest Rate
 
Days
to Maturity

Borrowings
Outstanding

Interest Rate
 
Days
to Maturity
30 days or less

$
392,806


0.59
%

12


$
219,854


0.96
%

14

31 - 60 days

1,242,685


0.52
%

21


1,361,948


0.60
%

21

61 - 90 days

1,451,609


0.59
%

41


1,699,034


0.57
%

44

91 - 180 days

1,658,074


0.47
%

72


2,326,863


0.54
%

56

Greater than 180 days

1,392,169


0.48
%

188


638,092


0.52
%

115

Total

$
6,137,343


0.52
%

77


$
6,245,791


0.57
%

50

We had repurchase agreements with 29 financial institutions as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012. In addition, less than 5% and 8% of stockholders' equity was at risk with any one counterparty, with the top five counterparties representing less than 17% and 26% of our equity at risk as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively.
We had agency securities with fair values of $6.0 billion and $6.2 billion and non-agency securities with fair values of $547.7 million and $545.7 million pledged as collateral against repurchase agreements, as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. Agency securities pledged do not include $121.7 million pledged under repurchase agreements related to securities sold but not yet settled as of March 31, 2013. As of March 31, 2013, borrowings of $5.8 billion and $370.5 million, with weighted average remaining days to maturity of 80 and 30, were secured by agency and non-agency securities, respectively.
Note 7. Derivatives
In connection with our risk management strategy, we economically hedge a portion of our exposure to market risks, including interest rate risk and prepayment risk, by entering into derivative and other hedging instrument contracts. We may enter into agreements for interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaptions, interest rate cap or floor contracts and futures or forward contracts. We may also purchase or short TBA and U.S. Treasury securities, purchase or write put or call options on TBA securities or we may invest in other types of derivative securities, including interest-only securities, synthetic total return swaps and credit default swaps. Our risk management strategy attempts to manage the overall risk of the portfolio and reduce fluctuations in book value. We do not use derivative or other hedging instruments for speculative purposes. Derivatives have not been designated as hedging instruments. We do not offset our derivatives and related cash collateral with the same counterparties under any master netting arrangements. For additional information regarding our derivative instruments and our overall risk management strategy, please refer to the discussion of derivatives in Note 3- Summary of Significant Accounting Policies.

The following table summarizes information about our outstanding derivatives for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):
 
December 31, 2012
Notional
Amount
Additions/ Long Positions
Expirations/
Terminations/ Short Positions
March 31, 2013
Notional
Amount
Interest rate swaps
$
2,940,000

2,050,000


$
4,990,000

Interest rate swaptions
$
1,150,000

1,000,000

(125,000
)
$
2,025,000

TBA securities
$
(522,188
)
9,231,632

(4,387,287
)
$
4,322,157

Short sales of U.S. Treasuries
$
(425,000
)
(1,910,000
)
765,000

$
(1,570,000
)


15



The table below presents the balance sheet location and fair value information for our derivatives outstanding as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (in thousands):
 
 
March 31, 2013
 
December 31, 2012
Interest rate swaps
 
$
1,584

 
$
519

Interest rate swaptions
 
35,158

 
21,944

TBA securities
 
15,407

 
580

Derivative assets, at fair value
 
$
52,149

 
$
23,043


 
 
 
 
Interest rate swaps
 
$
63,489

 
$
60,188

TBA securities
 
14,508

 
3,538

Derivative liabilities, at fair value
 
$
77,997

 
$
63,726


The following tables summarize the effect of our outstanding derivatives on our consolidated statements of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2013
 
 
Realized Loss on Periodic Settlements of Interest Rate Swaps, net
Realized Gain (Loss) on Other Derivatives and Securities, net
Unrealized Gain (Loss) on Other Derivatives and Securities, net
Unrealized Gain (Loss) and
Net Interest Income on Linked Transactions, net
Interest rate swaps
 
$
(7,734
)
$

$
(1,915
)
$

Interest rate swaptions
 

(2,156
)
(712
)

TBA securities
 

31

3,857


Short sales of U.S. Treasuries
 

(323
)
(16,481
)

Total
 
$
(7,734
)
$
(2,448
)
$
(15,251
)
$


 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2012
 
 
Realized Loss on Periodic Settlements of Interest Rate Swaps, net
Realized Loss on Other Derivatives and Securities, net
Unrealized Loss on Other Derivatives and Securities, net
Unrealized Gain (Loss) and
Net Interest Income on Linked Transactions, net
Interest rate swaps
 
$
(1,041
)
$

$
(5,271
)
$

Interest rate swaptions
 


(413
)

TBA securities
 

(2,936
)
(2,056
)

Short sales of U.S. Treasuries
 

3,763

955


U.S. Treasuries
 

(265
)


Linked Transactions
 



3,384

Total
 
$
(1,041
)
$
562

$
(6,785
)
$
3,384


16



Interest Rate Swap Agreements
As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, our derivative portfolio included interest rate swaps, which have the effect of modifying the repricing characteristics of our repurchase agreements and cash flows on such liabilities. Our interest rate swaps are used to manage the interest rate risk created by our use of short-term repurchase agreements. Under our interest rate swaps, we typically pay a fixed rate and receive a floating rate based on LIBOR with terms usually ranging up to ten years. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, we had interest rate swap agreements summarized in the tables below (dollars in thousands).
 
 
 
March 31, 2013
 
December 31, 2012
Interest Rate Swaps
Balance Sheet Location
 
Notional Amount
 
Fair Value
 
Notional Amount
 
Fair Value
Interest rate swap assets
Derivative assets, at fair value
 
$
200,000

 
$
1,584

 
$
50,000

 
$
519

Interest rate swap liabilities
Derivative liabilities, at fair value
 
4,790,000

 
(63,489
)
 
2,890,000

 
(60,188
)
 
 
 
$
4,990,000

 
$
(61,905
)
 
$
2,940,000

 
$
(59,669
)
March 31, 2013

Notional
Amount
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average
Current Maturity Date for Interest Rate Swaps (1)
 
 
Fixed
Pay Rate
 
Receive 
Rate
 

Maturity
(Years)
3 years or less
$
600,000


$
(5,569
)

0.83
%

0.29
%

2.1
Greater than 3 years and less than 5 years
1,165,000


(22,974
)

1.17
%

0.29
%

4.3
Greater than 5 years and less than 7 years
1,150,000


(16,167
)

1.44
%

0.30
%

6.0
Greater than 7 years
2,075,000


(17,195
)

2.00
%

0.30
%

9.3
Total
$
4,990,000


$
(61,905
)

1.54
%

0.30
%

6.5
December 31, 2012
 
Notional
Amount
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average
Current Maturity Date for Interest Rate Swaps (2)
 
 
Fixed
Pay Rate
 
Receive 
Rate
 

Maturity
(Years)
3 years or less
$
550,000

 
$
(6,639
)
 
0.81
%
 
0.31
%
 
2.3
Greater than 3 years and less than 5 years
1,215,000

 
(24,297
)
 
1.17
%
 
0.32
%
 
4.5
Greater than 5 years and less than 7 years
550,000

 
(16,256
)
 
1.55
%
 
0.34
%
 
6.4
Greater than 7 years
625,000

 
(12,477
)
 
1.89
%
 
0.34
%
 
9.5
Total
$
2,940,000

 
$
(59,669
)
 
1.33
%
 
0.32
%
 
5.5
————————
(1) 
Includes a swap with an aggregate notional of $1.7 billion with deferred start date within six months from March 31, 2013.
(2) 
Includes swaps with an aggregate notional of $50.0 million with deferred start dates within four months from December 31, 2012.

17



Interest Rate Swaption Agreements
Our interest rate swaption agreements provide us the option to enter into interest rate swap agreements in the future where we would pay a fixed rate and receive LIBOR. The following tables present certain information about our interest rate swaption agreements as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
March 31, 2013
 
 
Option
 
Underlying Swap
Current Option Expiration Date for Interest Rate Swaptions
 
Cost
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average Years to Expiration
 
Notional Amount
 
Pay Rate
 
Weighted Average Term (Years)
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 months or less
 
$
1,030

 
$
102

 
0.1
 
$
150,000

 
2.17
%
 
7.0
Greater than 3 months and less than 12 months
 
14,835

 
9,945

 
0.8
 
875,000

 
2.47
%
 
8.4
Greater than 12 months
 
25,240

 
25,111

 
2.5
 
1,000,000

 
3.12
%
 
7.8
Total
 
$
41,105

 
$
35,158

 
1.6
 
$
2,025,000

 
2.77
%
 
8.0
December 31, 2012
 
 
Option
 
Underlying Swap
Current Option Expiration Date for Interest Rate Swaptions
 
Cost
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average Years to Expiration
 
Notional Amount
 
Pay Rate
 
Weighted Average Term (Years)
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 months or less
 
$
2,156

 
$
2

 
0.2
 
$
125,000

 
3.30
%
 
10.0
Greater than 3 months and less than 12 months
 
635

 
3

 
0.3
 
50,000

 
2.68
%
 
7.0
Greater than 12 months
 
24,415

 
21,939

 
2.8
 
975,000

 
3.12
%
 
7.7
Total
 
$
27,206

 
$
21,944

 
2.4
 
$
1,150,000

 
3.12
%
 
7.9
TBA Securities
As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, we had contracts to purchase (“long position”) and sell (“short position”) TBA securities on a forward basis. The following table presents a summary of our long and short TBA positions as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (in thousands): 

As of March 31, 2013

As of December 31, 2012
Purchase and Sale Contracts for TBA Securities
Notional 
Amount (1)

Fair
Value (2)

Notional 
Amount (1)

Fair
Value (2)
Purchase of TBA securities
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Assets
$
3,537,270

 
$
14,875

 
$
182,600

 
$
580

Liabilities
801,387

 
(14,508
)
 
572,134

 
(992
)
Sale of TBA securities
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Assets
(16,500
)
 
532

 

 

Liabilities

 

 
(1,276,922
)
 
(2,546
)
Total, net
$
4,322,157

 
$
899

 
$
(522,188
)
 
$
(2,958
)
————————
(1) 
Notional amount represents the par value or principal balance of the underlying agency security.
(2) 
Fair value represents the current market value of the TBA contract as of period-end.


18



Linked Transactions
Our Linked Transactions are evaluated on a combined basis, reported as forward (derivative) instruments and are reported on our consolidated balance sheets at fair value.  The fair value of Linked Transactions reflect the value of the underlying non-agency securities, net of repurchase agreement borrowings and accrued interest receivable and payable on such instruments.  The change in the fair value of our Linked Transactions is reported as unrealized gain (loss) and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net, a component of other gain (loss), net in our consolidated statements of operations.

The following table presents the composition of unrealized gain (loss) and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Coupon interest income
 
$

 
$
302

Discount accretion
 

 
590

Interest expense
 

 
(183
)
Unrealized gain, net
 

 
2,675

Unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net
 
$

 
$
3,384

Reverse Repurchase Agreements
Additionally, we had obligations to return U.S. Treasury securities borrowed under reverse repurchase agreements accounted for as securities borrowing transactions with fair values of $1.6 billion and $421.1 million as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. The borrowed securities were collateralized by cash payments of $1.6 billion and $418.9 million as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively, which are presented as receivables under reverse repurchase agreements on the consolidated balance sheets. The change in fair value of the borrowed securities is recorded in unrealized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations.

Credit Risk-Related Contingent Features
The use of derivatives creates exposure to credit risk relating to potential losses that could be recognized in the event that the counterparties to these instruments fail to perform their obligations under the contracts. We minimize this risk by limiting our counterparties to major financial institutions with acceptable credit ratings and monitoring positions with individual counterparties. In addition, both we and our counterparties may be required to pledge assets as collateral for our derivatives, whose amounts vary over time based on the market value, notional amount and remaining term of the derivative contract. In the event of a default by a counterparty, we may not receive payments provided for under the terms of our derivative agreements, and may have difficulty obtaining our assets pledged as collateral for our derivatives. The cash and cash equivalents pledged as collateral for our derivative instruments is included in restricted cash and cash equivalents on our consolidated balance sheets.
Each of our ISDA Master Agreements contains provisions pursuant to which we are required to fully collateralize our obligations under the swap instrument if at any point the fair value of the swap represents a liability greater than the minimum transfer amount contained within our ISDA Master Agreements. We are also required to post initial collateral upon execution of certain of our swap transactions. If we breach any of these provisions, we will be required to settle our obligations under the agreements at their termination values.
Further, each of our ISDA Master Agreements also contains a cross default provision under which a default under certain of our other indebtedness in excess of a certain threshold causes an event of default under the agreement. Threshold amounts vary by lender. Following an event of default, we could be required to settle our obligations under the agreements at their termination values. Additionally, under certain of our ISDA Master Agreements, we could be required to settle our obligations under the agreements at their termination values if we fail to maintain either our REIT status or certain minimum stockholders’ equity thresholds, or comply with limits on our leverage above certain specified levels.
We had agency securities with fair values of $35.7 million and $74.1 million and restricted cash and cash equivalents of $18.8 million and $11.8 million pledged as collateral against our interest rate swaps as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively.


19



Note 8. Offsetting Assets and Liabilities

Certain of our repurchase agreements and derivative transactions are governed by underlying agreements that generally provide for a right of setoff under master netting arrangements (or similar agreements), including in the event of default or in the event of bankruptcy of either party to the transactions.  We present our assets and liabilities subject to such arrangements on a gross basis in our consolidated balance sheets.  The following tables present information about our assets and liabilities that are subject to such agreements and can potentially be offset on our consolidated balance sheets as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (in thousands):

Offsetting of Financial Assets and Derivative Assets:
 
 
Gross Amounts of Recognized Assets
 
Gross Amounts Offset in the Consolidated Balance Sheets
 
Net Amounts Offset in the Consolidated Balance Sheets
 
Gross Amounts Not Offset in the Consolidated Balance Sheet
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Instruments
 
Collateral Received (2)
 
Net Amounts
March 31, 2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interest rate swaps and swaptions (1)
 
$
36,742

 
$

 
$
36,742

 
$
(27,811
)
 
$
(2,840
)
 
$
6,091

Receivable under reverse repurchase agreements
 
1,563,334

 

 
1,563,334

 
(645,261
)
 
(863,660
)
 
54,413

Total
 
$
1,600,076

 
$

 
$
1,600,076

 
$
(673,072
)
 
$
(866,500
)
 
$
60,504

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
December 31, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interest rate swaps and swaptions (1)
 
$
22,463

 
$

 
$
22,463

 
$
(13,250
)
 
$

 
$
9,213

Receivable under reverse repurchase agreements
 
418,888

 

 
418,888

 
(418,888
)
 

 

Total
 
$
441,351

 
$

 
$
441,351

 
$
(432,138
)
 
$

 
$
9,213


Offsetting of Financial Liabilities and Derivative Liabilities:
 
 
Gross Amounts of Recognized Liabilities
 
Gross Amounts Offset in the Consolidated Balance Sheets
 
Net Amounts Offset in the Consolidated Balance Sheets
 
Gross Amounts Not Offset in the Consolidated Balance Sheet
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Financial Instruments
 
Collateral Pledged (2)
 
Net Amounts
March 31, 2013
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interest rate swaps (1)
 
$
63,489

 
$

 
$
63,489

 
$
(27,811
)
 
$
(35,142
)
 
$
536

Repurchase agreements
 
6,137,343

 

 
6,137,343

 
(645,261
)
 
(5,491,976
)
 
106

Total
 
$
6,200,832

 
$

 
$
6,200,832

 
$
(673,072
)
 
$
(5,527,118
)
 
$
642

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
December 31, 2012
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Interest rate swaps (1)
 
$
60,188

 
$

 
$
60,188

 
$
(13,250
)
 
$
(46,938
)
 
$

Repurchase agreements
 
6,245,791

 

 
6,245,791

 
(418,888
)
 
(5,826,903
)
 

Total
 
$
6,305,979

 
$

 
$
6,305,979

 
$
(432,138
)
 
$
(5,873,841
)
 
$

————————
(1)
Reported under derivative assets / liabilities, at fair value in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets. Refer to Note 7 for a reconciliation of derivative assets / liabilities, at fair value to their sub-components.
(2)
Includes cash and securities received / pledged as collateral, at fair value. Amounts presented are limited to collateral pledged sufficient to reduce the net amount to zero on a counterparty by counterparty basis, as applicable. Refer to Notes 4 and 5 for additional information regarding assets pledged as collateral.
Note 9. Fair Value Measurements
We have elected the option to account for all of our financial assets, including mortgage-backed securities, at fair value, with changes in fair value reflected in income during the period in which they occur. We have determined that this presentation

20



most appropriately represents our financial results and position. Fair value is defined as the price that would be received to sell an asset or paid to transfer a liability in an orderly transaction between market participants at the measurement date, based on the assumptions market participants would use when pricing an asset or liability.
We determine the fair value of our agency and non-agency securities including securities held as collateral, based upon fair value estimates obtained from multiple third-party pricing services and dealers. In determining fair value, third-party pricing sources use various valuation approaches, including market and income approaches. Factors used by third-party sources in estimating the fair value of an instrument may include observable inputs such as recent trading activity, credit data, volatility statistics, and other market data that are current as of the measurement date. The availability of observable inputs can vary by instrument and is affected by a wide variety of factors, including the type of instrument, whether the instrument is new and not yet established in the marketplace and other characteristics particular to the instrument. Third-party pricing sources may also use certain unobservable inputs, such as assumptions of future levels of prepayment, default and loss severity, especially when estimating fair values for securities with lower levels of recent trading activity. When possible, we make inquiries of third-party pricing sources to understand their use of significant inputs and assumptions.
We review the various third-party fair value estimates and perform procedures to validate their reasonableness, including an analysis of the range of third-party estimates for each position, comparison to recent trade activity for similar securities, and our Manager's review for consistency with market conditions observed as of the measurement date. While we do not adjust prices we obtain from third-party pricing sources, we will exclude third-party prices for securities from our determination of fair value if we determine (based on our validation procedures and our Manager's market knowledge and expertise) that the price is significantly different than observable market data would indicate and we cannot obtain an understanding from the third party source as to the significant inputs used to determine the price.
We utilize a three-level valuation hierarchy for disclosure of fair value measurement. The valuation hierarchy is based upon the transparency of inputs to the valuation of an asset or liability as of the measurement date. A financial instrument’s categorization within the hierarchy is based upon the lowest level of input that is significant to the fair value measurement. We use the results of the validation procedures described above as part of our determination of the appropriate fair value measurement hierarchy classification. The three levels of hierarchy are defined as follows:
Level 1 Inputs -    Quoted prices (unadjusted) for identical unrestricted assets and liabilities in active markets that are accessible at the measurement date.
Level 2 Inputs -    Quoted prices for similar assets and liabilities in active markets; quoted prices for identical or similar instruments in markets that are not active; and model-derived valuations whose inputs are observable or whose significant value drivers are observable.
Level 3 Inputs -    Significant unobservable market inputs that are supported by little or no market activity. The unobservable inputs represent the assumptions that market participants would use to price the assets and liabilities.
The following tables present our financial instruments carried at fair value as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, on the consolidated balance sheets by the valuation hierarchy, as described above (in thousands):
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
 
Level 1
 
Level 2
 
Level 3
 
Total
Assets
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Agency securities
 
$

 
$
6,535,598

 
$

 
$
6,535,598

Non-agency securities
 

 
619,550

 
107,801

 
727,351

Derivative assets
 

 
52,149

 

 
52,149

Total financial assets
 
$

 
$
7,207,297

 
$
107,801

 
$
7,315,098


 

 

 
 
 
 
Liabilities
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Derivative liabilities
 
$

 
$
77,997

 
$

 
$
77,997

Obligation to return securities borrowed under repurchase agreements
 
1,558,429

 

 

 
1,558,429

Total financial liabilities
 
$
1,558,429

 
$
77,997

 
$

 
$
1,636,426


21



 
 
As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Level 1
 
Level 2
 
Level 3
 
Total
Assets
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Agency securities
 
$

 
$
6,367,042

 
$

 
$
6,367,042

Non-agency securities
 

 
585,734

 
95,669

 
681,403

Derivative assets
 

 
23,043

 

 
23,043

Total financial assets
 
$

 
$
6,975,819

 
$
95,669

 
$
7,071,488

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Liabilities
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Derivative liabilities
 
$

 
$
63,726

 
$

 
$
63,726

Obligation to return securities borrowed under repurchase agreements
 
421,077

 

 

 
421,077

Total financial liabilities
 
$
421,077

 
$
63,726

 
$

 
$
484,803

The following tables present a summary of the changes in fair value for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 of Level 3 assets carried at fair value as of March 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2013
 
 
Non-Agency Securities
 
Linked Transactions
 
Total
Balance as of December 31, 2012
 
$
95,669

 
$

 
$
95,669

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unrealized gain
 
6,791

 

 
6,791

Unrealized loss
 
(334
)
 

 
(334
)
Total unrealized gain, net
 
6,457

 

 
6,457

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Purchases of securities
 
10,911

 

 
10,911

Sales of securities
 
(3,518
)
 

 
(3,518
)
Principal repayments on securities
 
(3,110
)
 

 
(3,110
)
Discount accretion
 
1,392

 

 
1,392

Balance as of March 31, 2013
 
$
107,801

 
$

 
$
107,801

 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31, 2012
 
 
Non-Agency Securities
 
Linked Transactions
 
Total
Balance as of December 31, 2011
 
$
5,969

 
$
1,746

 
$
7,715

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Unrealized gain
 
740

 
827

 
1,567

Unrealized loss
 
(401
)
 

 
(401
)
Total unrealized gain, net
 
339

 
827

 
1,166

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Purchases of securities
 
9,945

 

 
9,945

Principal repayments on securities
 
(345
)
 
(291
)
 
(636
)
Net change in borrowings underlying Linked Transactions
 

 
(48
)
 
(48
)
Discount accretion
 
266

 
159

 
425

Accrued interest on Linked Transactions
 

 
7

 
7

Balance as of March 31, 2012
 
$
16,174

 
$
2,400

 
$
18,574


22



There were no transfers between hierarchy levels during the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012. Unrealized gains and losses on non-agency securities are included in the consolidated statements of operations in the line item unrealized gain (loss) on non-agency securities, net and unrealized gains and losses on Linked Transactions are included on the consolidated statements of operations in the line item unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net.
Our agency securities and Prime, Alt-A and Option-ARM non-agency securities are valued using the various market data described above, which include inputs determined to be observable or whose significant value drivers are observable. Accordingly, our agency securities and prime, Alt-A and Option-ARM non-agency securities are classified as Level 2 in the fair value hierarchy. While our Subprime non-agency securities are valued using the same process with similar inputs, a significant amount of inputs have been determined to be unobservable due to relatively low levels of market activity and a wider range of external fair value estimates. Accordingly, our Subprime non-agency securities are classified as Level 3 in the fair value hierarchy.
The significant unobservable inputs used by external pricing sources in the fair value measurement of our Level 3 non-agency securities include assumptions for underlying loan collateral default rates and loss severities in the event of default, as well as discount rates. As discussed above, we review the various third-party fair value estimates used to determine the fair value of our securities by performing procedures to validate their reasonableness. In reviewing the fair values of our Level 3 non-agency securities, we use internal models and our own estimates of cumulative defaults and loss severities on the loans underlying our Subprime securities to estimate the range of discount rates implied by third-party pricing. The following table presents the range of our estimates of cumulative default and loss severities, together with the discount rates implicit in our Level 3 non-agency security fair values totaling $107.8 million as of March 31, 2013:
Unobservable Level 3 Input
 
Minimum
 
Weighted
Average
 
Maximum
Cumulative default percentage
 
52%
 
65%
 
70%
Loss severity
 
43%
 
65%
 
70%
Discount rate
 
3.1%
 
4.3%
 
6.0%
An increase in any one of these individual inputs in isolation would likely result in a decrease in fair value measurement. However, given the interrelationship between loss estimates and the discount rate, overall Subprime non-agency security market conditions would likely have a more significant impact on our Level 3 fair values than changes in any one unobservable input.
The fair value of Linked Transactions is comprised of the fair value of the underlying securities, reduced by the repurchase agreement final settlement amount.  The fair value of Linked Transactions also includes accrued interest receivable on the non-agency securities and accrued interest payable on the underlying repurchase agreement borrowings. The non-agency securities underlying our Linked Transactions are valued using similar techniques to those used for our other non-agency securities, and as such, Linked Transactions are classified in the fair value hierarchy, based on the classification of the underlying category of non-agency securities.
For information regarding valuation of our derivative instruments, please refer to the discussion of derivative and other hedging instruments in Note 3. Our interest rate swaps and other derivatives are classified as Level 2 in the fair value hierarchy.
The fair value of our obligation to return securities borrowed under reverse repurchase agreements is based upon the value of the underlying borrowed U.S. Treasury securities as of the reporting date. Our obligation to return the borrowed U.S. Treasury securities is classified as Level 1 in the fair value hierarchy.

23



Note 10. Stockholders’ Equity
Equity Offerings
During the three months ended March 31, 2013, we issued the following shares of common stock (amounts in thousands except per share amounts):
Public Offering Date
 
Price Received Per Share (1)
 
Number of Shares
 
Net Proceeds (2)
February 2013
 
$
25.40

 
23,000

 
$
583,880

—————— 
(1)
Price received per share is net of underwriters' discount, if applicable.
(2)  
Net Proceeds are net of any underwriters' discount and other offering costs.
Dividends
    
During the three months ended March 31, 2013, we declared dividends of $0.90 per share payable on April 26, 2013 to stockholders of record on March 20, 2013.

Stock Repurchase Program

In October 2012, our Board of Directors adopted a program that may provide for stock repurchases of up to $50 million of our outstanding shares of common stock through December 31, 2013. During the three months ended March 31, 2013, we made no open market purchases of shares of our common stock, and as of March 31, 2013 approximately $43 million of our shares of common stock remain authorized for repurchase.

Dividend Reinvestment and Direct Stock Purchase Plan

We sponsor a dividend reinvestment and direct stock purchase plan through which stockholders may purchase additional shares of our common stock by reinvesting some or all of the cash dividends received on shares of our common stock. Stockholders may also make optional cash purchases of shares of our common stock subject to certain limitations detailed in the plan prospectus. We did not issue any shares under the plan during the three months ended March 31, 2013.


24




Item 2. Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations
Management’s Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations (“MD&A”) provides readers of American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp.’s ("MTGE", the “Company”, “we”, “us” and “our”) consolidated financial statements a narrative from the perspective of management, and should be read in conjunction with the consolidated financial statements and accompanying notes included in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q as well as our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012. Our MD&A is presented in five sections:
Executive Overview
Financial Condition
Results of Operations
Liquidity and Capital Resources
Forward-Looking Statements
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
We were incorporated in Maryland on March 15, 2011 and commenced operations on August 9, 2011 following the completion of our IPO. We invest in, finance and manage a leveraged portfolio of mortgage-related investments, which we define to include agency mortgage investments, non-agency mortgage investments and other mortgage-related investments. Agency mortgage investments include residential mortgage pass-through certificates and CMOs structured from residential mortgage pass-through certificates for which the principal and interest payments are guaranteed by a GSE, such as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, or by a U.S. Government agency, such as Ginnie Mae. Non-agency mortgage investments include RMBS backed by residential mortgages that are not guaranteed by a GSE or U.S. Government agency. Non-agency mortgage investments may also include prime and non-prime residential mortgage loans. Other mortgage-related investments may include CMBS, commercial mortgage loans, mortgage-related derivatives and other mortgage-related investments.
We operate so as to qualify to be taxed as a REIT under the Internal Revenue Code. As such, we are required to, among other things, distribute annually at least 90% of our taxable net income. As long as we qualify as a REIT, we will generally not be subject to U.S. federal corporate taxes on our taxable net income to the extent that we distribute all of our annual taxable net income to our stockholders.
We are externally managed by an affiliate of American Capital and we do not have any employees.
Our Investment Strategy
Our objective is to provide attractive risk-adjusted returns to our stockholders over the long-term through a combination of dividends and net book value appreciation. In pursuing this objective, we rely on our Manager's expertise to construct and manage a diversified mortgage investment portfolio by identifying asset classes that, when properly financed and hedged, are selected to produce attractive returns across a variety of market conditions and economic cycles, considering the risks associated with owning such investments. Specifically, our investment strategy is designed to:
manage a leveraged portfolio of mortgage-related investments to generate attractive risk-adjusted returns;
capitalize on discrepancies in the relative valuations in the mortgage-related investments market;
manage financing, interest, prepayment rate and credit risks;
preserve our net asset value within reasonable bands;
provide regular quarterly distributions to our stockholders;
qualify as a REIT; and
remain exempt from the requirements of the Investment Company Act.
The size and composition of our investment portfolio depends on investment strategies implemented by our Manager, the availability of investment capital and overall market conditions, including the availability of attractively priced investments and suitable financing to appropriately leverage our investment portfolio. Market conditions are influenced by, among other things, current levels of and expectations for future levels of, interest rates, mortgage prepayments, market liquidity, housing prices, unemployment rates, general economic conditions, government participation in the mortgage market, evolving regulations or legal settlements that impact servicing practices or other mortgage related activities.

25



Our Risk Management Strategy  
We use a variety of strategies to economically hedge a portion of our exposure to market risks, including interest rate, prepayment and extension risks, to the extent that our Manager believes is prudent, taking into account our investment strategy, the cost of the hedging transactions and our intention to qualify as a REIT. As a result, we may not hedge certain interest rate, prepayment or extension risks if our Manager believes that bearing such risks enhances our return relative to our risk/return profile, or the hedging transaction would negatively impact our REIT status.
Interest Rate Risk. We hedge some of our exposure to potential interest rate mismatches between the interest we earn on our longer term investments and the costs on our shorter term borrowings. Because a majority of our leverage is in the form of repurchase agreements, our financing costs fluctuate based on short-term interest rate indices, such as LIBOR. Because our investments are assets that primarily have fixed rates of interest and could mature in up to 40 years, the interest we earn on those assets generally does not move in tandem with the interest rates that we pay on our repurchase agreements. We may experience reduced income or losses based on these rate movements. In order to attempt to mitigate a portion of such risk, we utilize certain hedging techniques to attempt to lock in a portion of the net interest spread between the interest we earn on our assets and the interest we pay on our financing costs.
Additionally, because prepayments on residential mortgages generally accelerate when interest rates decrease and slow when interest rates increase, mortgage securities typically have "negative convexity." In other words, certain mortgage securities in which we invest may increase in price more slowly than most bonds, or even fall in value, as interest rates decline. Conversely, certain mortgage securities in which we invest may decrease in value more quickly than similar duration bonds as interest rates increase. In order to manage this risk, we monitor, among other things, the "duration gap" between our mortgage assets and our hedge portfolio and our convexity exposure. Duration is the estimated percentage change in market value of our assets that would be caused by a parallel change in short and long-term interest rates. Convexity exposure relates to the way the duration of a mortgage security changes when the interest rate and prepayment environment changes.
The value of our mortgage assets may also be adversely impacted by fluctuations in the shape of the yield curve or by changes in the market's expectation about the volatility of future interest rates. We analyze our exposure to non-parallel changes in interest rates and to changes in the market's expectation of future interest rate volatility and take actions to attempt to mitigate these risks.
Prepayment Risk. Because residential borrowers are able to prepay their mortgage loans at par at any time, we face the risk that we will experience a return of principal on our investments earlier than anticipated. Prepayment risk generally increases when interest rates decline. In this scenario, our financial results may be adversely affected as we may have to invest that principal at potentially lower yields.
Extension Risk. Because residential borrowers have the option to make only scheduled payments on their mortgage loans, rather than prepay their mortgage loan, we face the risk that a return of capital on our investment will occur slower than anticipated. Extension risk generally increases when interest rates rise. In this scenario, our financial results may be adversely affected as we may have to finance our investments at potentially higher costs without the ability to reinvest principal into higher yielding securities.
The principal instruments that we use to hedge a portion of our exposure to interest rate, prepayment and extension risks are interest rate swaps and options to enter into interest rate swaps (“interest rate swaptions”). We also may purchase or sell TBAs, specified agency securities on a forward basis, U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. Treasury futures contracts; purchase or write put or call options on TBA securities; and invest in other types of mortgage derivatives, such as interest-only securities.
Our hedging instruments are generally not designed to protect our net book value from the risk of an increase of the market spread between the yield on our agency securities and benchmark interest rates, referred to "spread risk" or "basis risk." The spread risk associated with our agency securities and the resulting fluctuations in fair value of these securities can occur independent of interest rates and may relate to other factors impacting the mortgage and fixed income markets, such as actual or anticipated monetary policy actions by the Federal Reserve, liquidity, or changes in required rates of return on different assets. Consequently, while we use interest rate swaps and other supplemental hedges attempt to protect our net book value against moves in interest rates, such instruments typically will not protect our net book value against spread risk and, therefore, the value of our agency securities and our net book value could decline.
The risk management actions we take may lower our earnings and dividends in the short term to further our objective of maintaining attractive levels of earnings and dividends over the long term. In addition, some of our hedges are intended to provide protection against larger rate moves and as a result may be relatively ineffective for smaller changes in interest rates. There can be no certainty that our Manager's projections of our exposures to interest rates, prepayments or other risks will be accurate or that our hedging activities will be effective and, therefore, actual results could differ materially.

26



Income from hedging transactions that we enter into to manage risk may not constitute qualifying gross income under one or both of the gross income tests applicable to REITs. Therefore, we may have to limit our use of certain advantageous hedging techniques, which could expose us to greater risks than we would otherwise want to bear, or implement those hedges through a taxable REIT subsidiary ("TRS"). Implementing our hedges through a TRS could increase the cost of our hedging activities because a TRS is subject to tax on income and gains.
Trends and Recent Market Impacts
On September 13, 2012, the Federal Reserve announced their third quantitative easing program, commonly known as QE3, and extended their guidance to keep the federal funds rate at exceptionally low levels through at least mid-2015. QE3 entails large-scale purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities ("MBS") at the pace of $40 billion per month in addition to the Federal Reserve's existing policy of reinvesting principal payments from its holdings of agency MBS into new agency MBS purchases. The program is open-ended in nature, and is intended to put downward pressure on longer-term interest rates, support mortgage markets, and help make the broader financial conditions more accommodative. The Federal Reserve plans to continue their purchases of agency MBS and employ other policy tools, as appropriate, until they foresee substantial improvement in the outlook for the U.S. labor market.
The Federal Reserve's purchases have been concentrated in newly-issued, fixed-rate agency MBS (i.e., the part of the mortgage market with the greatest impact on mortgage rates offered to borrowers). The Federal Reserve has purchased an average of approximately $78 billion in agency securities per month during the first quarter of 2013, representing approximately half of the average monthly gross issuance of fixed-rate agency MBS over this period. While prices across the agency MBS spectrum initially increased significantly following the Federal Reserve's QE3 announcement, they decreased during the fourth quarter of 2012 and again during the first quarter of 2013. As of March 31, 2013, agency MBS prices were only slightly higher than those seen prior to the announcement of QE3.
The table below summarizes interest rates and prices for generic agency MBS as of the end of each respective quarter since March 31, 2012.
Interest Rate / Security (1)
 
March 31, 2013
 
December 31, 2012
 
September 30, 2012
 
June 30,
2012
 
March 31, 2012
LIBOR:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
1-Month
 
0.20%
 
0.21%
 
0.21%
 
0.25%
 
0.24%
3-Month
 
0.28%
 
0.31%
 
0.36%
 
0.46%
 
0.47%
U.S. Treasury Securities:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2-Year U.S. Treasury
 
0.24%
 
0.25%
 
0.23%
 
0.30%
 
0.33%
5-Year U.S. Treasury
 
0.77%
 
0.72%
 
0.63%
 
0.72%
 
1.04%
10-Year U.S. Treasury
 
1.85%
 
1.76%
 
1.63%
 
1.65%
 
2.21%
Interest Rate Swap Rates:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2-Year Swap Rate
 
0.42%
 
0.39%
 
0.37%
 
0.55%
 
0.58%
5-Year Swap Rate
 
0.95%
 
0.86%
 
0.76%
 
0.97%
 
1.27%
10-Year Swap Rate
 
2.01%
 
1.84%
 
1.70%
 
1.78%
 
2.29%
30-Year Fixed Rate MBS Price:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.5%
 
$105.58
 
$106.66
 
$107.25
 
$105.11
 
$102.72
4.0%
 
$106.61
 
$107.22
 
$107.75
 
$106.44
 
$104.86
4.5%
 
$107.73
 
$108.03
 
$108.25
 
$107.28
 
$106.38
15-Year Fixed Rate MBS Price:
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.5%
 
$103.75
 
$104.61
 
$105.13
 
$103.09
 
$101.42
3.0%
 
$105.17
 
$105.61
 
$106.00
 
$104.77
 
$103.56
3.5%
 
$106.03
 
$106.14
 
$106.41
 
$105.66
 
$104.92
 ________________________
(1) 
Price information is for generic instruments only and is not reflective of our specific portfolio holdings. Price information can vary by source. Prices in the table above obtained from a combination of Bloomberg and dealer indications. Interest rates obtained from Bloomberg.

In addition to generic fixed-rate agency MBS price declines during the first quarter of 2013, price premiums (or "pay-ups" over generic MBS prices) on specified pools of securities with favorable prepayment attributes also declined during the first quarter of 2013, as market participants shifted concerns over prepayment risk to extension risk amid favorable economic data released during the first quarter and increased expectations of a potential early slowing or discontinuation the Federal Reserve from QE3.

27



The table below summarizes pay-ups on specified pools over the corresponding generic agency MBS as of the end of each respective quarter for a select sample of specified securities. Price information provided in the table below is for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to be reflective of our specific portfolio holdings. Actual pay-ups are dependent on specific securities held in our portfolio and prices can vary depending on the source.
Pay-ups on Specified Mortgage Pools over Generic TBA Price (1)(2)
 
March 31, 2013
 
December 31, 2012
 
September 30, 2012
 
June 30, 2012
 
March 31, 2012
30-Year Lower Loan Balance (3):
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.0%
 
$0.13
 
$0.69
 
$0.09
 
$—
 
$—
3.5%
 
0.91
 
1.64
 
1.02
 
0.75
 
0.31
4.0%
 
3.28
 
4.19
 
3.45
 
2.00
 
1.25
30-Year HARP (4):
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.0%
 
0.07
 
0.47
 
0.06
 
 
3.5%
 
0.70
 
1.52
 
1.00
 
0.63
 
0.22
4.0%
 
$2.85
 
$4.06
 
$3.25
 
$1.94
 
$1.31
 ________________________
(1) 
Source: Bloomberg and dealer indications
(2) 
"Pay-ups” represent the value of the price premium of specified securities over generic TBA pools. The table above includes pay-ups for newly originated
specified pools. Price information is provided for information only and is not meant to be reflective of our specific portfolio holdings. Prices can vary
materially depending on the source.
(3) 
Lower loan balance pay-ups for pools with original loan balances from $110,000 to $125,000.
(4) 
HARP pay-ups for pools backed by 100% refinance loans with original loan-to-value ratios between 95% and 100%.

Our risk management strategy is designed to protect against larger moves in interest rates, and as a result provided little protection against agency MBS price declines as interest rates increased only modestly during the first quarter of 2013. The widening spread environment and associated underperformance of both generic and specified agency MBS relative to U.S. Treasury securities and interest rate swaps led to a decline in our net book value. However, prepayments on our portfolio remained relatively low near 6% during the first quarter of 2013 and the TBA dollar roll market continued to provide favorable financing levels.
As a result of the favorable TBA dollar roll financing levels resulting from QE3, we began to shift our agency investments during the first quarter of 2013 towards a significant net long TBA position, as detailed in Financial Condition below.
As the Federal Reserve continues to deliberate the timing of a potential slowing or discontinuation of QE3 and as investors react to changing expectations of Federal Reserve actions, we expect the agency MBS market to continue to experience significant volatility. Although the timing of a potential slowing or discontinuation of QE3 is uncertain, we currently expect the Federal Reserve will continue its large scale purchases of agency MBS through the remainder of 2013.
We expect during periods in which the Federal Reserve purchases significant volumes of mortgages, yields on agency MBS securities will be lower than yields would have been absent QE3 and refinancing volumes will be higher than volumes would have been absent QE3. Since returns on agency MBS are highly sensitive to prepayment speeds, we have positioned our investment portfolio towards agency MBS that we believe have favorable prepayment attributes. As of March 31, 2013, 83% of our agency securities portfolio (not including our net long TBA position) was comprised of agency securities backed by lower loan balance mortgages (pools backed by original loan balances of up to $150,000) and loans originated under HARP (pools backed by 100% refinance loans with original loan-to-value ratios greater than or equal to 80%), which we believe have a lower risk of prepayment relative to generic agency securities. The remainder of our agency securities portfolio as of March 31, 2013 was primarily comprised of lower coupon, newer issuance, fixed-rate agency securities. (See Financial Condition below for further details of our portfolio composition as of March 31, 2013).


28



The following table summarizes recent prepayment trends for our portfolio and, for comparison, Fannie Mae 2011 30-
year 4.0% fixed-rate generic mortgage-backed securities for the three months ended March 31, 2013.
 
 
Agency Portfolio Actual CPR (1)
 
Fannie Mae 2011 30-year 4.0% Fixed Rate Universe (2)
January
 
6%
 
31%
February
 
7%
 
30%
March
 
6%
 
26%
_______________________
(1) 
Weighted average actual one-month annualized Conditional Prepayment Rate ("CPR") released at the beginning of the month based on securities held as of the preceding month-end.
(2) 
Source: JP Morgan

The market for legacy non-agency securities continued to perform well in the first quarter of the year, as positive developments in the US housing market coupled with limited supply and strong demand have provided a firm foundation. Liquidity and funding are improving but are highly dependent on broader macroeconomic factors and will be impacted if economic trends both here and abroad deteriorate from expectations. Further, central bank policies have played an important part in the global reach for higher yielding assets and any unexpected change in these policies could also have a negative impact on the value of non-agency securities. As such, we will continue our cautious selective approach to growing our non-agency portfolio.

In terms of new mortgage credit supply, there have been some recent positive developments although the overall size remains extremely small. The Federal Housing Finance Agency ("FHFA") has set a target of $60 billion in notional credit risk transactions this year for the GSEs, which should help define where private capital is willing to participate in some of the GSE credit risk. Away from the GSEs, the private label RMBS market has also increased with new issuances in the first quarter of 2013 of approximately $4 billion, already surpassing last year's total. We are optimistic that these trends will continue to provide a larger market for non-agency assets as housing finance eventually transitions away from the government. However, this process will likely remain fairly slow.
Summary of Critical Accounting Estimates

Our critical accounting estimates relate to the fair value of our investments, recognition of interest income, and derivatives. Certain of these items involve estimates that require management to make judgments that are subjective in nature. We rely on our Manager's experience and analysis of historical and current market data in order to arrive at what we believe to be reasonable estimates. Under different conditions, we could report materially different amounts using these critical accounting policies. All of our critical accounting policies are fully described in our MD&A in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012. Our significant accounting policies are described in Note 3 to the consolidated financial statements included under Item 1 of this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.

We have elected the option to account for all of our financial assets, including all mortgage-related investments, at fair value, with changes in fair value reflected in income during the period in which they occur. We believe this election more appropriately reflects the results of our operations for a particular reporting period, as financial asset fair value changes are presented in a manner consistent with the presentation and timing of the fair value changes of economic hedging instruments.

FINANCIAL CONDITION
As of March 31, 2013, our investment portfolio with a fair value of $11.8 billion consisted of $6.5 billion of agency MBS, $4.5 billion in net long TBA positions, and $727.4 million of non-agency securities. Our investment portfolio grew $4.8 billion from $7.0 billion at December 31, 2012 following the completion of a follow-on public offering of 23.0 million shares of our common stock for net proceeds of $583.9 million. As of December 31, 2012, as a component of our risk management strategy, we had a net short TBA position and the TBA securities underlying the net short TBA contacts had a fair value of $(572.7) million.
The first quarter portfolio growth was mainly in the form of a net long TBA position, given the favorable TBA dollar roll financing levels resulting from QE3. Our net long TBA positions are recorded as derivatives in our accompanying consolidated financial statements with the TBA dollar roll transactions representing a form of off-balance sheet financing. The $4.5 billion of

29



TBA positions as of March 31, 2013 represents the fair value of the underlying TBA security of the TBA contact, with the net fair value of the TBA contracts recorded as $0.9 million in the accompanying consolidated balance sheets.
The table below presents our condensed consolidated balance sheets as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts): 
 
 
March 31, 2013

 
December 31, 2012

Balance Sheet Data:
 
 
 
 
Total agency and non-agency securities
 
$
7,262,949

 
$
7,048,445

Total assets
 
$
9,363,347

 
$
7,696,140

Repurchase agreements
 
$
6,137,343

 
$
6,245,791

Total liabilities
 
$
7,933,520

 
$
6,770,578

Total stockholders’ equity
 
$
1,429,827

 
$
925,562

Net asset value per common share
 
$
24.25

 
$
25.74

The following tables summarize certain characteristics of our securities portfolio by issuer and investment category as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):

 
As of March 31, 2013
  
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized Cost Basis
 
Par Value
 
Weighted Average
Coupon
 
Yield (1)
Fannie Mae

$
5,176,667


$
5,128,606


$
4,834,647


3.53
%

2.54
%
Freddie Mac

1,358,931


1,348,559


1,282,887


3.46
%

2.68
%
Agency total

6,535,598


6,477,165


6,117,534


3.51
%

2.57
%
Non-agency securities

727,351


632,178


1,050,021


1.66
%

7.47
%
Total

$
7,262,949


$
7,109,343


$
7,167,555


3.24
%

3.00
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized Cost Basis
 
Par Value
 
Weighted Average
 
 
Coupon
 
Yield (1)
Fannie Mae
 
$
5,325,187

 
$
5,211,321

 
$
4,939,592

 
3.40
%
 
2.42
%
Freddie Mac
 
1,041,855

 
1,018,449

 
965,074

 
3.57
%
 
2.65
%
Agency total
 
6,367,042

 
6,229,770

 
5,904,666

 
3.43
%
 
2.46
%
Non-agency securities
 
681,403

 
616,707

 
1,045,891

 
1.70
%
 
7.47
%
Total
 
$
7,048,445

 
$
6,846,477

 
$
6,950,557

 
3.17
%
 
2.91
%
 
————————
(1) 
The weighted average agency security yield incorporates an average future constant prepayment rate assumption of 8% and 9% as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively, based on forward rates. For non-agency securities, the weighted average yield is based on estimated cash flows that incorporate expected credit losses.


30



Agency Securities
As detailed in the tables below, the weighted average agency security portfolio yield and coupon both increased slightly, while total weighted average projected CPR decreased by approximately 100 basis points from December 31, 2012 to March 31, 2013. These changes were consistent with a slight shift in our agency security allocation toward higher yield and coupon, and slower prepaying, 30-year securities. The following table summarizes certain characteristics of our agency securities portfolio by term and coupon as of March 31, 2013 (dollars in thousands):


As of March 31, 2013


Fair Value
 
Amortized Cost Basis
 
Par Value
 
Weighted Average


Yield
 
Projected CPR
15-Year










2.5%

$
693,744


$
693,498

 
$
668,256

 
1.70
%
 
9
%
3.0%

375,056


369,750

 
354,346

 
2.03
%
 
9
%
3.5%

331,248


322,067

 
308,562

 
2.41
%
 
11
%
4.0%

308,569


303,449

 
284,150

 
2.20
%
 
13
%
4.5%

21,162


20,632

 
19,297

 
2.67
%
 
13
%
15-Year Total

1,729,779


1,709,396

 
1,634,611

 
2.00
%
 
10
%
20-Year

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.0%
 
24,427

 
24,684

 
23,411

 
2.11
%
 
7
%
3.5%

44,869


43,555

 
41,934

 
2.78
%
 
9
%
4.0%

7,869


7,754

 
7,374

 
2.77
%
 
13
%
5.0%

3,527


3,606

 
3,252

 
2.41
%
 
14
%
20-Year Total

80,692


79,599

 
75,971

 
2.55
%
 
9
%
30-Year

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.0%
 
348,550

 
349,082

 
339,001

 
2.64
%
 
6
%
3.5%

2,527,256


2,523,935

 
2,377,994

 
2.67
%
 
7
%
4.0%

1,684,250


1,654,747

 
1,540,654

 
2.90
%
 
8
%
4.5%

115,976


112,376

 
104,832

 
3.32
%
 
9
%
5.0%

49,095


48,030

 
44,471

 
3.36
%
 
13
%
30-Year Total

4,725,127


4,688,170

 
4,406,952

 
2.77
%
 
8
%
Total Agency Securities
 
$
6,535,598

 
$
6,477,165

 
$
6,117,534

 
2.57
%
 
8
%
The percentage of our agency securities portfolio allocated to HARP and lower loan balance securities was 83% (not including our net long TBA position) as of March 31, 2013 (dollars in thousands):
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
  
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized Cost Basis
 
Par Value
 
Weighted Average
Coupon
 
Yield
 
Projected CPR
HARP (1)
 
$
2,262,478

 
$
2,244,429

 
$
2,108,037

 
3.70
%
 
2.75
%
 
8
%
Lower Loan Balance (2)
 
3,140,880

 
3,101,920

 
2,919,543

 
3.65
%
 
2.62
%
 
9
%
Other
 
1,132,240

 
1,130,816

 
1,089,954

 
2.79
%
 
2.07
%
 
8
%
Total
 
$
6,535,598

 
$
6,477,165

 
$
6,117,534

 
3.51
%
 
2.57
%
 
8
%
————————
(1) 
HARP securities represent pools with loans refinanced under HARP that have original loan-to-value ratios greater than or equal to 80%. Our HARP securities had a weighted average LTV of 96% and 111% for 15-year and 30-year securities, respectively, as of March 31, 2013. Includes $691 million of >105% LTV pools which are not deliverable into TBA securities.
(2) 
Lower loan balance securities represent pools with maximum original loan balances less than or equal to $150,000. Our lower loan balance securities had a weighted average original loan balance of $99,000 and $91,000 for 15-year and 30-year securities, respectively, as of March 31, 2013.


31



The following table summarizes certain characteristics of our agency securities portfolio by term and coupon as of December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
 
As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized Cost Basis
 
Par Value
 
Weighted Average
 
 
Yield
 
Projected CPR
15-Year
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.5%
 
$
1,172,193

 
$
1,165,844

 
$
1,119,368

 
1.59
%
 
10
%
3.0%
 
341,883

 
333,689

 
320,239

 
2.04
%
 
10
%
3.5%
 
348,478

 
338,364

 
324,261

 
2.36
%
 
13
%
4.0%
 
324,555

 
319,339

 
299,077

 
2.14
%
 
14
%
4.5%
 
21,860

 
21,404

 
20,004

 
2.63
%
 
13
%
15-Year Total
 
2,208,969

 
2,178,640

 
2,082,949

 
1.87
%
 
11
%
20-Year
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.0%
 
64,642

 
64,667

 
61,355

 
2.20
%
 
7
%
3.5%
 
85,218

 
82,404

 
79,112

 
2.63
%
 
11
%
4.0%
 
8,840

 
8,619

 
8,230

 
2.68
%
 
17
%
5.0%
 
3,530

 
3,648

 
3,282

 
2.30
%
 
15
%
20-Year Total
 
162,230

 
159,338

 
151,979

 
2.40
%
 
10
%
30-Year
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
3.0%
 
279,669

 
279,470

 
265,647

 
2.36
%
 
6
%
3.5%
 
2,113,307

 
2,063,030

 
1,956,547

 
2.74
%
 
8
%
4.0%
 
1,429,633

 
1,381,735

 
1,291,383

 
2.90
%
 
9
%
4.5%
 
122,856

 
118,314

 
110,574

 
3.29
%
 
10
%
5.0%
 
50,378

 
49,243

 
45,587

 
3.27
%
 
14
%
30-Year Total
 
3,995,843

 
3,891,792

 
3,669,738

 
2.79
%
 
8
%
Total Agency Securities
 
$
6,367,042

 
$
6,229,770

 
$
5,904,666

 
2.46
%
 
9
%
The percentage of our agency securities portfolio allocated to HARP and lower loan balance securities was 83% as of December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):

 
 
As of December 31, 2012
  
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized Cost Basis
 
Par Value
 
Weighted Average
Coupon
 
Yield
 
Projected CPR
HARP (1)
 
$
2,061,693

 
$
2,011,805

 
$
1,898,416

 
3.63
%
 
2.71
%
 
9
%
Lower Loan Balance (2)
 
3,222,159

 
3,142,014

 
2,974,055

 
3.55
%
 
2.54
%
 
9
%
Other
 
1,083,190

 
1,075,951

 
1,032,195

 
2.69
%
 
1.78
%
 
11
%
Total
 
$
6,367,042

 
$
6,229,770

 
$
5,904,666

 
3.43
%
 
2.46
%
 
9
%
————————
(1) 
HARP securities represent pools with loans refinanced under HARP that have original loan-to-value ratios greater than or equal to 80%. Our HARP securities had a weighted average LTV of 94% and 109% for 15-year and 30-year securities, respectively, as of December 31, 2012.
(2) 
Lower loan balance securities represent pools with maximum original loan balances less than or equal to $150,000. Our lower loan balance securities had a weighted average original loan balance of $98,000 and $97,000 for 15-year and 30-year securities, respectively, as of December 31, 2012.

32



The following table summarizes our agency securities at fair value, according to their estimated weighted average life classifications as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands): 

As of March 31, 2013
 
 
 
As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Weighted Average Life
Fair
Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
 
Fair
Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
Less than or equal to three years
$

 
$

 
%
 
%
 
$

 
$

 
%
 
%
Greater than three years and less than or equal to five years
1,114,245

 
1,093,883

 
2.18
%
 
3.40
%
 
1,759,226

 
1,731,178

 
1.94
%
 
3.09
%
Greater than five years and less than or equal to 10 years
5,159,000

 
5,121,583

 
2.64
%
 
3.56
%
 
4,484,509

 
4,375,925

 
2.66
%
 
3.57
%
Greater than 10 years
262,353

 
261,699

 
2.74
%
 
3.14
%
 
123,307

 
122,667

 
2.52
%
 
3.12
%
Total
$
6,535,598

 
$
6,477,165

 
2.57
%
 
3.51
%
 
$
6,367,042

 
$
6,229,770

 
2.46
%
 
3.43
%
Actual maturities of agency MBS are generally shorter than stated contractual maturities primarily as a result of prepayments of principal of the underlying mortgages. The stated contractual final maturity of the mortgage loans underlying our portfolio of securities can range up to 40 years, but the expected maturity is subject to change based on the actual and expected future prepayments of the underlying loans.
In determining the estimated weighted average years to maturity and yields on our agency MBS, we estimate the percentage of outstanding principal that is prepaid over a period of time on an annualized basis, or CPR, based on assumptions for each security using a combination of a third-party service, market data and internal models. The third-party service estimates prepayment speeds using models that incorporate the forward yield curve, mortgage rates, current mortgage rates of the outstanding loans, loan age, volatility and other factors. We have estimated that the CPR over the remaining life of our aggregate agency investment portfolio was 8.3% and 9.3% as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. Based on these prepayment assumptions, the weighted average expected life of our agency securities was 7.7 years and 7.0 years as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. We amortize or accrete premiums and discounts associated with purchases of our agency MBS into interest income over the estimated life of our securities based on projected CPRs, using the effective yield method. Since the weighted average cost basis of our agency MBS portfolio was 105.9% of par value as of March 31, 2013, slower actual and projected prepayments can have a meaningful positive impact on our asset yields, while faster actual or projected prepayments can have a meaningful negative impact on our asset yields.

33



TBA Investments
Most of our first quarter 2013 portfolio growth was in the form of a net long TBA position, given the favorable TBA dollar roll financing levels resulting from QE3. As of December 31, 2012, as a component of our risk management strategy, we had a net short TBA position and the TBA securities underlying the net short TBA contacts had a fair value of $(572.7) million.
The following tables summarize our TBA positions as of March 31, 2013 (dollars in thousands):
 
 
March 31, 2013
 
 
Notional Amount (1)
 
Cost Basis (2)
 
Market
Value (3)
 
Net Carrying Value (4)
 
Dollar Roll Net Interest Spread (5)
 
 
 
 
15- Year
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
2.5%
 
$
1,006,296

 
$
1,039,469

 
$
1,041,704

 
$
2,235

 
2.15
%
3.0%
 
155,000

 
162,576

 
162,895

 
319

 
1.38
%
Subtotal
 
1,161,296

 
1,202,045

 
1,204,599

 
2,554

 
2.05
%
30-Year
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

 
 
3.0%
 
1,821,191

 
1,877,362

 
1,868,489

 
(8,873
)
 
2.80
%
3.5%
 
845,571

 
885,770

 
891,395

 
5,625

 
2.52
%
4.0%
 
494,099

 
524,621

 
526,214

 
1,593

 
1.11
%
Subtotal
 
3,160,861

 
3,287,753

 
3,286,098

 
(1,655
)
 
2.46
%
Total
 
$
4,322,157

 
$
4,489,798

 
$
4,490,697

 
$
899

 
2.35
%
————————
(1) 
Notional amount represents the par value or principal balance of the underlying agency securities.
(2) 
Cost basis represents the forward price to be paid for the underlying agency securities.
(3) 
Market value represents the current market value of the agency securities underlying the TBA contracts as of period-end.
(4) 
Net carrying value represents the difference between the market value of the TBA contract as of period-end and the cost basis and is reported in derivative assets / (liabilities), at fair value in our consolidated balance sheets.
(5) 
Represents dollar roll income (or price drop) stated as a percent of the TBA cost basis on an annualized basis.
Non-Agency Investments
Non-agency MBS yields are based on our estimate of the timing and amount of future cash flows and our cost basis. Our cash flow estimates for these investments are based on our observations of current information and events and include assumptions related to interest rates, prepayment rates and the timing and amount of credit losses and other factors.
The following tables summarize our non-agency securities portfolio as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
As of March 31, 2013
 
 
Fair
  Value
 
Gross Unrealized
 
Amortized Cost
 
Discount
 
Par/ Current Face
 
Weighted Average
Category
 
 
Gains
 
Losses
 
 
 
 
Coupon (1)
 
Yield
Prime
 
$
118,550

 
$
11,744

 
$
(47
)
 
$
106,853

 
$
(30,489
)
 
$
137,342

 
3.21
%
 
7.02
%
Alt-A
 
430,399

 
49,427

 
(262
)
 
381,234

 
(221,851
)
 
603,085

 
1.91
%
 
7.42
%
Option-ARM
 
70,601

 
15,669

 

 
54,932

 
(37,645
)
 
92,577

 
0.60
%
 
8.02
%
Subprime
 
107,801

 
18,896

 
(254
)
 
89,159

 
(127,858
)
 
217,017

 
0.42
%
 
7.91
%
Total
 
$
727,351

 
$
95,736

 
$
(563
)
 
$
632,178

 
$
(417,843
)
 
$
1,050,021

 
1.66
%
 
7.47
%
————————
(1)
Weighted average coupon rates are floating, except for $16.0 million and $18.2 million fair value of prime and Alt-A non-agency securities, respectively, as of March 31, 2013.

34



As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Fair
  Value
 
Gross Unrealized
 
Amortized Cost
 
Discount
 
Par/ Current Face
 
Weighted Average
Category
 
 
Gains
 
Losses
 
 
 
 
Coupon (1)
 
Yield
Prime
 
$
113,351

 
$
10,338

 
$

 
$
103,013

 
$
(33,406
)
 
$
136,419

 
3.13
%
 
7.15
%
Alt-A
 
403,522

 
30,325

 
(911
)
 
374,108

 
(226,224
)
 
600,332

 
2.02
%
 
7.36
%
Option-ARM
 
68,861

 
12,761

 

 
56,100

 
(38,617
)
 
94,717

 
0.60
%
 
8.08
%
Subprime
 
95,669

 
12,183

 

 
83,486

 
(130,937
)
 
214,423

 
0.38
%
 
7.92
%
Total
 
$
681,403

 
$
65,607

 
$
(911
)
 
$
616,707

 
$
(429,184
)
 
$
1,045,891

 
1.70
%
 
7.47
%
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
————————
(1)
Weighted average coupon rates are floating, except for $11.3 million and $18.6 million fair value of prime and Alt-A non-agency securities, respectively, as of December 31, 2012.
The following table summarizes our non-agency securities by their estimated weighted average life classifications as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
 
 
As of December 31, 2012
Weighted Average Life
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
 
Fair Value
 
Amortized
Cost
 
Weighted
Average
Yield
 
Weighted Average Coupon
Less than or equal to five years
 
$
122,611

 
$
114,549

 
6.15
%
 
2.00
%
 
$
90,919

 
$
85,595

 
6.43
%
 
1.53
%
Greater than five years and less than or equal to seven years
 
261,603

 
230,191

 
7.33
%
 
1.82
%
 
324,394

 
290,640

 
7.96
%
 
1.55
%
Greater than seven years
 
343,137

 
287,438

 
8.11
%
 
1.48
%
 
266,090

 
240,472

 
7.24
%
 
2.00
%
Total
 
$
727,351

 
$
632,178

 
7.47
%
 
1.66
%
 
$
681,403

 
$
616,707

 
7.47
%
 
1.70
%
Our non-agency securities are subject to risk of loss with regard to principal and interest payments. As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, our non-agency securities have generally either been assigned below investment grade ratings by rating agencies, or have not been rated. Credit ratings are based on the par value of the non-agency securities. However, the non-agency securities in our portfolio were generally purchased at a significant discount to par value. The following table summarizes the credit ratings of our non-agency securities as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012:
Credit Rating (1)
March 31, 2013

 
December 31, 2012
BBB
2
%
 
3
%
BB
3
%
 
2
%
B
8
%
 
8
%
Below B
79
%
 
79
%
Not Rated
8
%
 
8
%
Total
100
%
 
100
%
————————
(1)
Represents the lowest of S&P, Moody's and Fitch credit ratings, stated in terms of the S&P equivalent.
We evaluate each investment based on the characteristics of the underlying collateral and securitization structure, rather than relying on rating agencies. These securities were collateralized by mortgages with original weighted average amortized loan to value ratios ("LTV's") of 76% and 72% as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. However, as the home values associated with these mortgages have generally experienced significant price declines since origination and the LTV's are calculated based on the original home values, we believe that current market-based LTV's would be significantly higher. Additionally, 21% and 22% of the mortgages underlying these securities as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively, are either 60 or more days delinquent, undergoing foreclosure or bankruptcy processes, or held as real estate

35



owned by the trusts. Credit enhancement, or protection provided at the security level to absorb future credit losses due to defaults on underlying collateral is another important component of this evaluation. Our non-agency securities had weighted average credit enhancements of 3% and 4% as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively.
The following tables present the fair value and weighted average purchase price for each of our non-agency investment categories, together with certain of their respective underlying loan collateral attributes and current performance metrics as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
 
Fair
  Value
 
Weighted Average Purchase Price
 
Weighted Average
Collateral Attributes
 
Weighted Average
Current Performance
Category
 
 
 
Loan Age (months)
 
Original LTV
 
Original FICO (1)
 
60+ Day Delinquent (2)
 
3-Month CPR (3)
Prime
 
$
118,550

 
$
77.99

 
94
 
75
%
 
732
 
11
%
 
14
%
Alt-A
 
430,399

 
62.90

 
90
 
75
%
 
712
 
20
%
 
11
%
Option-ARM
 
70,601

 
59.59

 
89
 
74
%
 
710
 
24
%
 
12
%
Subprime
 
107,801

 
42.04

 
81
 
81
%
 
621
 
33
%
 
11
%
Total
 
$
727,351

 
$
60.59

 
89
 
76
%
 
701
 
21
%
 
12
%
 
 
As of December 31, 2012
 
 
Fair
  Value
 
Weighted Average Purchase Price
 
Weighted Average
Collateral Attributes
 
Weighted Average
Current Performance
Category
 
 
 
Loan Age (months)
 
Original LTV
 
Original FICO (1)
 
60+ Day Delinquent (2)
 
3-Month CPR (3)
Prime
 
$
113,351

 
$
75.19

 
88
 
70
%
 
733
 
12
%
 
13
%
Alt-A
 
403,522

 
62.18

 
87
 
72
%
 
711
 
21
%
 
13
%
Option-ARM
 
68,861

 
59.59

 
86
 
74
%
 
710
 
26
%
 
10
%
Subprime
 
95,669

 
39.36

 
76
 
75
%
 
621
 
33
%
 
9
%
Total
 
$
681,403

 
$
59.11

 
85
 
72
%
 
702
 
22
%
 
12
%
————————
(1)
FICO represents a mortgage industry accepted credit score of a borrower based on a scale of 300 to 850 with a score of 850 being the highest quality rating.
(2) 
60+ day delinquent represents the percentage of mortgage loans underlying each category of non-agency securities that were delinquent for at least 60 days.
(3) 
Three-month CPR is reflective of the prepayment and default rate on the underlying securitization; however, it does not necessarily indicate the proceeds received on our non-agency securities. Proceeds received for each security are dependent on the position of the individual security within the structure of each deal.        
The mortgage loans underlying our non-agency securities are located throughout the United States. The following table presents the five states with the largest geographic concentrations of underlying mortgages as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012:
 
 
% of Non-Agency Portfolio
 
 
March 31, 2013
 
December 31, 2012
California
 
36
%
 
37
%
Florida
 
11
%
 
11
%
Virginia
 
6
%
 
5
%
New York
 
5
%
 
4
%
Maryland
 
4
%
 
4
%
Total
 
62
%
 
61
%

36



Repurchase Financing and Hedging
The following table summarizes our borrowings under repurchase arrangements and weighted average interest rates classified by original maturities as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
 
As of December 31, 2012
 
 

 
Weighted Average
 

 
Weighted Average
Original Maturity
 
Borrowings
Outstanding
 
Interest Rate
 
Days
to Maturity
 
Borrowings
Outstanding
 
Interest Rate
 
Days
to Maturity
30 days or less
 
$
392,806

 
0.59
%
 
12

 
$
219,854

 
0.96
%
 
14

31 - 60 days
 
1,242,685

 
0.52
%
 
21

 
1,361,948

 
0.60
%
 
21

61 - 90 days
 
1,451,609

 
0.59
%
 
41

 
1,699,034

 
0.57
%
 
44

91 - 180 days
 
1,658,074

 
0.47
%
 
72

 
2,326,863

 
0.54
%
 
56

Greater than 180 days
 
1,392,169

 
0.48
%
 
188

 
638,092

 
0.52
%
 
115

Total
 
$
6,137,343

 
0.52
%
 
77

 
$
6,245,791

 
0.57
%
 
50

As of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, we had interest rate swap agreements outstanding where we pay a fixed rate and receive a floating rate based on LIBOR, summarized in the tables below (dollars in thousands):
March 31, 2013

Notional
Amount
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average
Current Maturity Date for Interest Rate Swaps (1)
 
 
Fixed
Pay Rate
 
Receive 
Rate
 

Maturity
(Years)
3 years or less
$
600,000

 
$
(5,569
)
 
0.83
%
 
0.29
%
 
2.1
Greater than 3 years and less than 5 years
1,165,000

 
(22,974
)
 
1.17
%
 
0.29
%
 
4.3
Greater than 5 years and less than 7 years
1,150,000

 
(16,167
)
 
1.44
%
 
0.30
%
 
6.0
Greater than 7 years
2,075,000

 
(17,195
)
 
2.00
%
 
0.30
%
 
9.3
Total
$
4,990,000

 
$
(61,905
)
 
1.54
%
 
0.30
%
 
6.5
December 31, 2012
 
Notional
Amount
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average
Current Maturity Date for Interest Rate Swaps (2)
 
 
Fixed
Pay Rate
 
Receive 
Rate
 

Maturity
(Years)
3 years or less
$
550,000

 
$
(6,639
)
 
0.81
%
 
0.31
%
 
2.3
Greater than 3 years and less than 5 years
1,215,000

 
(24,297
)
 
1.17
%
 
0.32
%
 
4.5
Greater than 5 years and less than 7 years
550,000

 
(16,256
)
 
1.55
%
 
0.34
%
 
6.4
Greater than 7 years
625,000

 
(12,477
)
 
1.89
%
 
0.34
%
 
9.5
Total
$
2,940,000

 
$
(59,669
)
 
1.33
%
 
0.32
%
 
5.5
————————
(1) 
Includes a swap with an aggregate notional of $1.7 billion with deferred start dates within four months from March 31, 2013.
(2) 
Includes swaps with an aggregate notional of $50.0 million with deferred start dates within four months from December 31, 2012.

37



The following tables present certain information about our interest rate swaption agreements as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands):
March 31, 2013
 
 
Option
 
Underlying Swap
Current Option Expiration Date for Interest Rate Swaptions
 
Cost
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average Years to Expiration
 
Notional Amount
 
Pay Rate
 
Weighted Average Term (Years)
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 months or less
 
$
1,030

 
$
102

 
0.1
 
$
150,000

 
2.17
%
 
7.0
Greater than 3 months and less than 12 months
 
14,835

 
9,945

 
0.8
 
875,000

 
2.47
%
 
8.4
Greater than 12 months
 
25,240

 
25,111

 
2.5
 
1,000,000

 
3.12
%
 
7.8
Total
 
$
41,105

 
$
35,158

 
1.6
 
$
2,025,000

 
2.77
%
 
8.0
December 31, 2012
 
 
Option
 
Underlying Swap
Current Option Expiration Date for Interest Rate Swaptions
 
Cost
 
Fair Value
 
Weighted Average Years to Expiration
 
Notional Amount
 
Pay Rate
 
Weighted Average Term (Years)
 
 
 
 
 
 
3 months or less
 
$
2,156

 
$
2

 
0.2
 
$
125,000

 
3.30
%
 
10.0
Greater than 3 months and less than 12 months
 
635

 
3

 
0.3
 
50,000

 
2.68
%
 
7.0
Greater than 12 months
 
24,415

 
21,939

 
2.8
 
975,000

 
3.12
%
 
7.7
Total
 
$
27,206

 
$
21,944

 
2.4
 
$
1,150,000

 
3.12
%
 
7.9

38



RESULTS OF OPERATIONS
The table below presents our consolidated statement of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Interest income:
 
 
 
 
Agency securities
 
$
40,183

 
$
15,306

Non-agency securities
 
11,293

 
1,271

Other
 
91

 
25

Interest expense
 
(8,036
)
 
(1,664
)
Net interest income
 
43,531

 
14,938

 
 
 
 
 
Other gains (losses):
 
 
 
 
Realized gain on agency securities, net
 
8,674

 
5,971

Realized gain on non-agency securities, net
 
1,419

 

Realized loss on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net
 
(7,734
)
 
(1,041
)
Realized gain (loss) gain on other derivatives and securities, net
 
(2,448
)
 
562

Unrealized gain (loss) gain on agency securities, net
 
(78,840
)
 
4,006

Unrealized gain on non-agency securities, net
 
30,478

 
2,411

Unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net
 

 
3,384

Unrealized loss on other derivatives and securities, net
 
(15,251
)
 
(6,785
)
Total other gains (losses), net
 
(63,702
)
 
8,508

 
 
 
 

Expenses:
 
 
 
 
Management fees
 
4,444

 
1,082

General and administrative expenses
 
1,777

 
1,035

Total expenses
 
6,221

 
2,117

 
 
 
 
 
Income (loss) before excise tax
 
(26,392
)
 
21,329

Excise tax
 
177

 
9

Net income (loss)
 
$
(26,569
)
 
$
21,320

 
 
 
 
 
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding—basic and diluted
 
47,469

 
11,724

 
 
 
 
 
Net income (loss) per common share—basic and diluted
 
$
(0.56
)
 
$
1.82


39



Interest Income and Asset Yields
The table below presents the weighted average yield for our agency and non-agency securities for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012:
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
 
 
Average Amortized Cost
 
Weighted Average Yield
 
Interest Income
 
Average Amortized Cost
 
Weighted Average Yield
 
Interest Income (1)
Agency securities
 
$
6,012,033

 
2.67
%
 
$
40,183

 
$
1,967,996

 
3.11
%
 
$
15,306

Non-agency securities
 
618,957

 
7.30
%
 
11,293

 
107,491

 
8.05
%
 
2,162

Total
 
$
6,630,990

 
3.11
%
 
$
51,476

 
$
2,075,487

 
3.37
%
 
$
17,468

—————— 
(1)  
For the three months ended March 31, 2012, interest income from non-agency securities includes $0.9 million of interest income on securities classified as Linked Transactions.

While average yield was 0.26% lower during the three months ended March 31, 2013 compared to the three months ended March 31, 2012, interest income increased due to significantly higher average investment balances as a result of issuances of common stock during 2012 and the first quarter of 2013. Our interest income does not include TBA dollar roll income reported in gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations. The following is a summary of the impact of changes in the principal elements of interest income for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):
 
 
Three Months Ended March 31, 2013
vs. March 31, 2012
 
 
 
 
Due to Change in Average (1)
 
 
Increase
 
Volume
 
Yield
Agency securities
 
$
24,877

 
$
26,716

 
$
(1,839
)
Non-agency securities
 
9,131

 
9,313

 
(182
)
Total
 
$
34,008

 
$
36,029

 
$
(2,021
)
—————— 
(1)  
Variances that are the combined effect of volume and yield, but cannot be separately identified, are allocated to the volume and yield variances based on their respective relative amounts.
We amortize premiums and discounts associated with agency securities and non-agency securities of high credit quality into interest income over the life of such securities using the effective yield method. The effective yield (or asset yield) on these securities is based on actual CPRs realized for individual securities in our investment portfolio through the reporting date and assumes a CPR over the remaining projected life of our aggregate investment portfolio. We estimate projected CPRs on these securities using a third-party service and market data. We update our estimates on at least a quarterly basis, and more frequently when economic or market conditions warrant. The effective yield on these securities is adjusted retrospectively for differences between actual and projected CPR estimates or for changes in our projected CPR estimates. Our projected CPR estimate for our agency securities was 8% and 9% as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. The actual CPR realized for individual agency securities in our investment portfolio was approximately 6.3% and 5.7% for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively.
Interest income from our agency securities is net of premium amortization expense of $8.9 million and $2.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The change in our weighted average CPR estimates resulted in the recognition of approximately $2 million of "catch up" premium amortization benefit during the three months ended March 31, 2013. The amortized cost basis of our agency securities portfolio was 105.9% and 105.5% of par value, and the net unamortized premium balance of our aggregate agency securities portfolio was $359.6 million and $325.1 million, as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively.
At the time we purchase non-agency securities that are not of high credit quality, we determine an effective yield based on our estimate of the timing and amount of future cash flows and our cost basis. On at least a quarterly basis, we review the estimated cash flows and make appropriate adjustments with any changes in effective yield recognized prospectively based on the current amortized cost of the investment as adjusted for credit impairment, if any. Our estimates of future cash flows are

40



based on input and analysis received from external sources, internal models and judgment about interest rates, prepayment rates, the timing and amount of credit loses and other factors. Interest income from our non-agency securities, including those non-agency securities underlying Linked Transactions, includes discount accretion of $7.1 million and $1.4 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The weighted average cost basis of the non-agency portfolio was 60% of par as of March 31, 2013. The total net discount remaining was $417.8 million as of March 31, 2013 with $291.2 million designated as credit reserves as of March 31, 2013.
Leverage
Our leverage was 4.3x and 6.7x our stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. When adjusted for the net payables and receivables for unsettled securities and our net long TBA position, our leverage ratio was 7.4x and 6.7x our stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. Our actual leverage will vary from time to time based on various factors, including our Manager’s opinion of the level of risk of our assets and liabilities, our view of the attractiveness of the return environment, composition of our investment portfolio, our liquidity position, our level of unused borrowing capacity, over-collateralization levels required by lenders when we pledge securities to secure our borrowings and the current market value of our investment portfolio. Our net position of TBA commitments should also be considered when determining our effective leverage. While TBA commitments are treated as derivatives under GAAP and thus not included in our actual leverage calculations, they do carry similar risks to agency security purchases on our balance sheet. In addition, certain of our master repurchase agreements and master swap agreements contain a restriction that prohibits our leverage from exceeding certain levels ranging from 10 to 12 times the amount of our stockholders' equity.
The table below presents our quarterly average and quarter end repurchase agreement balances outstanding and average leverage ratios for the three months ended March 31, 2013, December 31, 2012, September 30, 2012, June 30, 2012 and March, 31, 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
Repurchase Agreements (1)
 
Average
Daily
Interest
Rate on
Amounts
Outstanding
 
Average
Interest
Rate on
Ending
Amount
Outstanding
 
Average Leverage (2)
 
Leverage as of 
Period End (3)
 
Adjusted Leverage as of Period End (4)
Quarter Ended
 
Average Daily
Amount
Outstanding
 
Maximum
Daily Amount
Outstanding
 
Ending
Amount
Outstanding
 
March 31, 2013
 
$
5,832,005

 
$
6,245,791

 
$
6,137,343

 
0.56
%
 
0.52
%
 
4.9x
 
4.3x
 
7.4x
December 31, 2012
 
$
5,894,642

 
$
6,299,981

 
$
6,245,791

 
0.56
%
 
0.57
%
 
6.4x
 
6.7x
 
6.7x
September 30, 2012

$
5,834,747

 
$
6,117,783

 
$
6,117,783

 
0.50
%
 
0.51
%
 
6.9x
 
6.7x
 
6.6x
June 30, 2012
 
$
4,211,603

 
$
5,487,628

 
$
5,399,160

 
0.46
%
 
0.47
%
 
6.5x
 
6.7x
 
6.8x
March 31, 2012
 
$
1,894,945

 
$
3,602,964

 
$
3,602,964

 
0.39
%
 
0.41
%
 
6.8x
 
7.4x
 
7.6x
————————
(1) 
Includes repurchase agreements within Linked Transactions, at fair value, on the consolidated balance sheet.
(2) 
Average leverage for the period was calculated by dividing our daily weighted average repurchase agreements (including those within Linked Transactions) by our average month-ended stockholders’ equity for the period.
(3) 
Leverage as of period end was calculated by dividing the amount outstanding under our repurchase agreements by our stockholders’ equity at period end.
(4) 
Adjusted leverage as of period end was calculated by dividing the sum of the amounts outstanding under our repurchase agreements, the cost basis (or contract price) of our net long TBA position and net payables and receivables for unsettled securities by our total stockholders’ equity at period end.
Our average leverage and leverage as of period end included in the table above does not include the impact of TBA positions, which have the effect of increasing or decreasing our "at risk" leverage. A net long position increases our at risk leverage, while a net short position reduces our at risk leverage. As of March 31, 2013, we had a net long TBA position with a notional value of $4.3 billion and an underlying cost basis of $4.5 billion. Our total at risk leverage including the effect of net long TBA positions is shown as the adjusted leverage as of period end in the table above.
Interest Expense and Cost of Funds
Interest expense of $8.0 million and $1.7 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively, was comprised of interest expense on our repurchase agreements. We also incurred $0.2 million of expense for repurchase agreements reported as Linked Transactions, which is included in unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net on our consolidated statement of operations for the three months ended March 31, 2012. In addition, we recorded expense for our net periodic interest settlements related to our interest rate swaps of $7.7 million and $1.0 million for

41



the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively, which is included in realized loss on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net, on our consolidated statements of operations.

The table below presents our average cost of funds for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
 
 
Average
Balance / Notional
 
Percentage (1)
 
Cost of Funds (2)
 
Average
Balance / Notional
 
Percentage (1)
 
Cost of Funds (2)(3)
Repurchase agreements
 
$5,832,005
 
0.56%
 
$8,036
 
$1,894,945
 
0.39%
 
$
1,847

Interest rate swaps
 
$4,052,500
 
0.54%
 
7,734
 
$1,216,250
 
0.22%
 
1,041

Total
 
 
 
1.10%
 
$15,770
 
 
 
0.61%
 
$
2,888

————————
(1) 
Percent of our average repurchase agreements annualized.
(2) 
Our cost of funds excludes any impacts from other supplemental hedges such as treasury securities and swaptions.
(3) 
For the three months ended March 31, 2012, repurchase agreement interest expense includes $0.2 million of interest expense on repurchase agreements related to securities underlying Linked Transactions.
The period-over-period increase in our adjusted cost of funds was largely attributable to the increase in our average repurchase agreements balances outstanding, higher repurchase agreement financing ("repo") rates and a higher weighted average pay rate on our interest rate swaps. The increase in repurchase agreement rates was associated with longer maturities resulting from extending the average original days-to-maturity of our repo funding to 108 days as of March 31, 2013 from 74 days as of March 31, 2012. Our cost of funds does not include the implied financing cost or benefit of our net TBA dollar roll position reported in gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net in our consolidated statements of operations.
The following is a summary of the impact of changes in the principal elements of our total adjusted interest expense and cost of funds for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (in thousands):
 
 
Three Months Ended March 31, 2013
vs. March 31, 2012
 
 
 
 
Due to Change in Average (1)
 
 
Increase
 
Volume
 
Rate
Repurchase agreements
 
$
6,189

 
$
5,116

 
$
1,073

Interest rate swaps
 
6,693

 
4,122

 
2,571

Total adjusted net interest expense and cost of funds
 
$
12,882

 
$
9,238

 
$
3,644

—————— 
(1)  
Variances that are the combined effect of volume and yield, but cannot be separately identified, are allocated to the volume and yield variances based on their respective relative amounts.
Realized Gain on Securities, Net
Sales of securities are driven by our Manager’s execution of our active portfolio management strategy. Our strategy for the period presented was largely focused on positioning our portfolio towards securities with attributes our Manager believes reduce the level of prepayment risk and overall exposure to interest rate risk in light of current and anticipated interest rates, federal government programs, general economic conditions and other factors.

42



The following table is a summary of our net realized gains and losses on agency securities for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Proceeds from agency securities sold
 
$
1,873,234

 
$
571,428

Increase (decrease) in receivable for agency securities sold
 
121,816

 
(198,598
)
Less agency securities sold, at cost
 
(1,986,376
)
 
(366,859
)
Net realized gains on sale of agency securities
 
$
8,674

 
$
5,971

 
 
 
 
 
Gross realized gains on sale of agency securities
 
$
14,627

 
$
5,971

Gross realized losses on sale of agency securities
 
(5,953
)
 

Net realized gains on sale of agency securities
 
$
8,674

 
$
5,971

The following table is a summary of our net realized gains and losses on non-agency securities for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Proceeds from non-agency securities sold
 
$
11,425

 
$

Less: non-agency securities sold, at cost
 
(10,006
)
 

Net realized gains on sale of non-agency securities
 
$
1,419

 
$

 
 
 
 
 
Gross realized gains on sale of non-agency securities
 
$
1,419

 
$

Gross realized losses on sale of non-agency securities
 

 

Net realized gains on sale of non-agency securities
 
$
1,419

 
$


43



Gain (Loss) on Derivatives and Other Securities, Net
The following table is a summary of our realized and unrealized loss on derivatives and other securities, net, for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands): 
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Realized loss on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net
 
$
(7,734
)
 
$
(1,041
)
Realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities:
 
 
 
 
Interest rate swaptions
 
$
(2,156
)
 
$

TBA securities
 
31

 
(2,936
)
U.S Treasury securities sold short
 
(323
)
 
3,763

U.S Treasury securities
 

 
(265
)
Total realized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities, net
 
$
(2,448
)
 
$
562

Unrealized gain (loss) on other derivatives and securities:
 
 
 
 
TBA securities
 
$
3,857

 
$
(2,056
)
Interest rate swaps
 
(1,915
)
 
(5,271
)
Interest rate swaptions
 
(712
)
 
(413
)
U.S Treasury securities sold short
 
(16,481
)
 
955

Total unrealized loss on other derivatives and securities, net
 
$
(15,251
)
 
$
(6,785
)
Unrealized gain (loss) and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net
 
 
 
 
Unrealized gain on Linked Transactions
 
$

 
$
2,675

Interest income on non-agency securities within Linked Transactions
 

 
892

Interest expense on repurchase agreements underlying Linked Transactions
 

 
(183
)
Total unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net
 
$

 
$
3,384


For further details regarding our derivatives and related hedging activity please refer to Notes 3 and 7 to our consolidated financial statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q.
Management Fees and General and Administrative Expenses
We pay our Manager a base management fee payable monthly in arrears in an amount equal to one twelfth of 1.50% of our Equity. Our Equity is defined as our month-end GAAP stockholders’ equity, adjusted to exclude the effect of any unrealized gains or losses included in retained earnings as computed in accordance with GAAP. There is no incentive compensation payable to our Manager pursuant to the management agreement. We incurred management fees of $4.4 million and $1.1 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively.
General and administrative expenses were $1.8 million and $1.0 million for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. Our general and administrative expenses primarily consist of prime brokerage fees, information technology costs, research and data service fees, audit fees, Board of Directors fees and insurance expenses.
Our operating expenses as a percentage of our average stockholders’ equity on an annualized basis was 2.1% and 3.0%, respectively, for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively.

44



Dividends and Income Taxes

We had estimated taxable income of $37.8 million and $18.3 million (or $0.80 and $1.56 per common share) for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012, respectively. The following is a reconciliation of our GAAP net income to our estimated taxable income for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands).
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Net income (loss)
 
$
(26,569
)
 
$
21,320

Book to tax differences:
 
 
 
 
Unrealized (gains) and losses, net
 
 
 
 
Agency securities
 
78,840

 
(4,006
)
Non-agency securities
 
(30,478
)
 
(2,411
)
Non-agency securities underlying Linked Transactions
 

 
(2,675
)
Derivatives and other securities
 
15,251

 
6,785

Premium amortization, net
 
1,864

 
(265
)
Realized gains, net
 
(1,360
)
 
(486
)
Other
 
206

 
23

Total book to tax difference
 
64,323

 
(3,035
)
Estimated taxable income
 
$
37,754

 
$
18,285

 
 
 
 
 
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding -
basic and diluted
 
47,469

 
11,724

 
 
 
 
 
Estimated taxable income per common share
 
$
0.80

 
$
1.56

Estimated taxable income per share was $0.76 per share lower for the first quarter of 2013 than for the first quarter of 2012, due mainly to reduced average leverage related to 2013 dollar roll investments, and $0.33 per share less in realized gains on sales of agency securities.
We declared dividends of $0.90 per share for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012. We expect to distribute our remaining fiscal year 2012 taxable income during 2013, subject to the spill-back provision, so that we will not be subject to federal or state corporate income tax. However, as a REIT, we are still subject to a nondeductible Federal excise tax of 4% to the extent that the sum of (i) 85% of our ordinary taxable income, (ii) 95% of our capital gains and (iii) any undistributed taxable income from the prior year exceeds our distributions paid in such year. As of March 31, 2013, we had an estimated $26.6 million (or $0.45 per share) of undistributed taxable income, net of the dividend payable as of March 31, 2013 of $53.1 million.


45



Key Statistics

The table below presents key statistics for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands, except per share amounts):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Ending agency securities, at fair value
 
$
6,535,598

 
$
3,844,747

Ending agency securities, at cost
 
$
6,477,165

 
$
3,826,924

Ending agency securities, at par
 
$
6,117,534

 
$
3,674,668

Average agency securities, at cost
 
$
6,012,033

 
$
1,967,996

Average agency securities, at par
 
$
5,692,708

 
$
1,872,616

 
 


 
 
Ending non-agency securities, at fair value (1)
 
$
727,351

 
$
180,786

Ending non-agency securities, at cost (1)
 
$
632,178

 
$
177,992

Ending non-agency securities, at par (1)
 
$
1,050,021

 
$
286,229

Average non-agency securities, at cost (1)
 
$
618,957

 
$
107,491

Average non-agency securities, at par (1)
 
$
1,040,534

 
$
182,900

 
 


 
 
Net long TBA position - as of period end, at fair value
 
$
4,490,697

 
NM

Average TBA dollar roll position, at cost
 
$
746,793

 
NM

 
 


 
 
Average total assets, at fair value
 
$
8,222,549

 
$
2,269,192

Average repurchase agreements (1)
 
$
5,832,005

 
$
1,894,945

Average stockholders' equity
 
$
1,180,931

 
$
279,490

 
 
 
 
 
Average coupon (2)
 
3.17
 %
 
3.64
%
Average asset yield (2)
 
3.11
 %
 
3.36
%
Average cost of funds (3)
 
1.10
 %
 
0.61
%
Average net interest rate spread
 
2.01
 %
 
2.75
%
Average net interest rate spread, including estimated TBA dollar roll income (4)
 
2.27
 %
 
NM

Average actual CPR for agency securities held during the period
 
6.3
 %
 
5.7
%
Average projected life CPR for agency securities as of period end
 
8.3
 %
 
7.3
%
 
 


 
 
Leverage- average during the period (5)
 
4.9x

 
6.8x

Leverage- average during the period, including average TBA dollar roll position
 
5.6x

 
NM

Leverage- as of period end (6)
 
4.3x

 
7.6x

Leverage- as of period end, including net TBA position
 
7.4x

 
NM

 
 


 
 
Expenses % of average total assets
 
0.3
 %
 
0.4
%
Expenses % of average stockholders' equity
 
2.1
 %
 
3.0
%
Net book value per common share as of period end
 
$
24.25

 
$
21.78

Dividends declared per common share
 
$
0.90

 
$
0.90

Net return (loss) on average stockholders' equity
 
(9.1)
 %
 
30.6
%
————————
  *
Average numbers for each period are weighted based on days on the Company's books and records. All percentages are annualized.
NM = Not meaningful. Prior to the first quarter of 2013, the Company's net TBA position consisted of short TBAs used for hedging purposes.

46




(1) 
If the Company purchases investment securities and finances the purchase with a repurchase agreement with the same counterparty that is entered into simultaneously or in contemplation of the purchase, the purchase commitment and repurchase agreement are recorded net for GAAP purposes on the financial statements as a derivative (“Linked Transaction”). As of March 31, 2013, the Company had no Linked Transactions.
(2) 
Weighted average coupon and asset yields include securities classified as Linked Transactions on the consolidated balance sheet.
(3) 
Weighted average cost of funds includes interest expense on repurchase agreements underlying Linked Transactions and periodic settlements of interest rate swaps.
(4) 
Estimated TBA dollar roll income is net of short TBAs used for hedging purposes. Dollar roll income excludes the impact of other supplemental hedges, and is recognized in gain (loss) on derivative instruments and other securities, net.
(5) 
Leverage during the period was calculated by dividing the Company's daily weighted average repurchase agreements (including those related to Linked Transactions), for the period by the Company's average month-ended stockholders' equity for the period.
(6) 
Leverage at period end was calculated by dividing the sum of the amount outstanding under the Company's repurchase agreements, the amount outstanding under repurchase agreements recorded as Linked Transactions and the net receivable/payable for unsettled securities at period end by the Company's stockholders' equity at period end.
Net Spread Income
GAAP interest income does not include interest earned on non-agency securities underlying our Linked Transactions, and GAAP interest expense does not include either interest related to repurchase agreements underlying our Linked Transactions, or periodic settlements associated with undesignated interest rate swaps. Interest income and expense related to Linked Transactions is reported within unrealized gain and net interest income on Linked Transactions, net and periodic interest settlements associated with undesignated interest rate swaps are reported in realized loss on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net on our consolidated statement of operations. As we believe that these items are beneficial to the understanding of our investment performance, we provide a non-GAAP measure called adjusted net interest income, which is comprised of net interest income plus the net interest income related to Linked Transactions, less net periodic settlements of interest rate swaps. Additionally, we present net spread income as a measure of our operating performance. Net spread income is comprised of adjusted net interest income, less total operating expenses. Net spread income excludes all unrealized gains or losses due to changes in fair value, realized gains or losses on sales of securities, realized losses associated with derivative instruments and income taxes. Net spread income does not include any impact from other hedging activities, such as the use of swaptions, U.S Treasuries and TBA positions.
The table below presents a reconciliation from GAAP net interest income to adjusted net interest income and net spread income for the three months ended March 31, 2013 and 2012 (dollars in thousands):
 
 
For the Three Months Ended March 31,
 
 
2013
 
2012
Interest income:
 
 
 
 
Agency securities
 
$
40,183

 
$
15,306

Non-agency securities and other
 
11,384

 
1,296

Interest expense
 
(8,036
)
 
(1,664
)
Net interest income
 
43,531

 
14,938

Net interest income on non-agency securities underlying Linked Transactions
 

 
708

Realized loss on periodic settlements of interest rate swaps, net
 
(7,734
)
 
(1,041
)
Adjusted net interest income
 
35,797

 
14,605

Operating expenses
 
(6,221
)
 
(2,117
)
Net spread income
 
$
29,576

 
$
12,488

 
 
 
 
 
Weighted average number of common shares outstanding - basic and diluted
 
47,469

 
11,724

 
 
 
 
 
Net spread income per common share – basic and diluted
 
$
0.62

 
$
1.07


The period-over-period decline in net spread income per common share is primarily a function of margin compression due to lower asset yields and higher cost of funds, and the first quarter 2013 increase in dollar roll investments that do not impact net spread income. Net spread income does not include TBA dollar roll income of $8.0 million, or $0.17 per common share, for the three months ended March 31, 2013. During the three months ended March 31, 2012, we did not have dollar roll income since we primarily held short TBA contracts for hedging purposes.

47



The Company believes that the above non-GAAP financial measures provide information useful to investors because net spread income is a financial metric used by management and investors and estimated taxable income is directly related to the amount of dividends the Company is required to distribute in order to maintain its REIT tax qualification status.
The Company also believes that providing investors with our net spread income, estimated taxable income and certain financial metrics derived from such non-GAAP financial information, in addition to the related GAAP measures, gives investors greater transparency to the information used by management in its financial and operational decision-making. However, because net spread income and estimated taxable income are incomplete measures of the Company's financial performance and involve differences from net income computed in accordance with GAAP, they should be considered as supplementary to, and not as a substitute for, the Company's net income computed in accordance with GAAP as a measure of the Company's financial performance. In addition, because not all companies use identical calculations, our presentation of net spread income and estimated taxable income may not be comparable to other similarly-titled measures of other companies.
LIQUIDITY AND CAPITAL RESOURCES
Our primary sources of funds are borrowings under master repurchase agreements, equity offerings, asset sales and monthly principal and interest payments on our investment portfolio. Because the level of our borrowings can be adjusted on a daily basis, the level of cash and cash equivalents carried on the balance sheet is significantly less important than the potential liquidity available under our borrowing arrangements. We currently believe that we have sufficient liquidity and capital resources available for the acquisition of additional investments, repayments on borrowings, maintenance of any margin requirements and the payment of cash dividends as required for our continued qualification as a REIT. To qualify as a REIT, we must distribute annually at least 90% of our taxable income. To the extent that we annually distribute all of our taxable income in a timely manner, we will generally not be subject to federal and state income taxes. We currently expect to distribute all of our taxable income in a timely manner so that we are not subject to Federal and state income taxes. This distribution requirement limits our ability to retain earnings and thereby replenish or increase capital from operations.
Equity Capital

To the extent we raise additional equity capital through follow-on equity offerings, we currently anticipate using cash proceeds from such transactions to purchase additional investment securities, to make scheduled payments of principal and interest on our repurchase agreements and for other general corporate purposes. There can be no assurance, however, that we will be able to raise additional equity capital at any particular time or on any particular terms.

Follow-on Common Stock Offerings
During the three months ended March 31, 2013, we issued the following shares of common stock (amounts in thousands except per share amounts):
Offering Date
 
Price Received Per Share (1)
 
Number of Shares
 
Net Proceeds (2)
February 2013
 
$
25.40

 
23,000

 
$
583,880

—————— 
(1)
Price received per share is net of underwriters' discount, if applicable.
(2)  
Net Proceeds are net of any underwriters' discount and other offering costs.
    
Stock Repurchase Program

In October 2012, our Board of Directors adopted a program that may provide for stock repurchases of up to $50 million of our outstanding shares of common stock through December 31, 2013. Shares of our common stock may be purchased in the open market, including through block purchases, or through privately negotiated transactions, or pursuant to any trading plan that may be adopted in accordance with Rule 10b5-1 of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The timing, manner, price and amount of any repurchases will be determined at our discretion and the program may be suspended, terminated or modified at any time for any reason. We intend to repurchase shares only when the purchase price is less than our estimate of our current net asset value per share of our common stock. Generally, when we repurchase our common stock at a discount to our net
asset value, the net asset value of our remaining shares of common stock outstanding increases. In addition, we do not intend to repurchase any shares from directors, officers or other affiliates. The program does not obligate us to acquire any specific number of shares and all repurchases will be made in accordance with SEC Rule 10b-18, which sets certain restrictions on the method, timing, price and volume of stock repurchases. During the three months ended March 31, 2013, we made no open market purchases of shares of our common stock, and as of March 31, 2013 approximately $43 million of our shares of common stock remain authorized for repurchase.

48




Dividend Reinvestment and Direct Stock Purchase Plan

We sponsor a dividend reinvestment and direct stock purchase plan through which stockholders may purchase additional shares of our common stock by reinvesting some or all of the cash dividends received on shares of our common stock. Stockholders may also make optional cash purchases of shares of our common stock subject to certain limitations detailed in the plan prospectus. We did not issue any shares under the plan during the three months ended March 31, 2013.

Debt Capital
As part of our investment strategy, we borrow against our investment portfolio pursuant to master repurchase agreements. We expect that our borrowings pursuant to repurchase transactions under such master repurchase agreements generally will have maturities of less than one year. When adjusted for net payables and receivables for unsettled securities, our leverage ratio was 4.3x and 6.7x the amount of our stockholders’ equity as of March 31, 2013 and December 31, 2012, respectively. Our cost of borrowings under master repurchase agreements generally corresponds to LIBOR plus or minus a margin. We had repurchase agreements with 29 financial institutions as of March 31, 2013. In addition, less than 5% of our equity was at risk with any one counterparty, with the top five counterparties representing less than 17% of our equity at risk as of March 31, 2013.
As of March 31, 2013, borrowings of $5.8 billion and $370.5 million, with weighted average remaining days to maturity of 80 and 30, were secured by agency and non-agency securities, respectively.
The table below includes a summary of our repurchase agreement funding and number of counterparties by region as of March 31, 2013. Refer to Note 6 to our consolidated financial statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for further details regarding our borrowings under repurchase agreements and weighted average interest rates as of March 31, 2013.
 
 
As of March 31, 2013
Counterparty Region
 
Number of Counterparties
 
Percent of Repurchase Agreement Funding
North America
 
18
 
54%
Asia
 
5
 
18%
Europe
 
6
 
28%
Total
 
29
 
100%
Amounts available to be borrowed under our repurchase agreements are dependent upon lender collateral requirements and the lender’s determination of the fair value of the securities pledged as collateral, based on recognized pricing sources agreed to by both parties to the agreement. Collateral fair value can fluctuate with changes in interest rates, credit quality and liquidity conditions within the investment banking, mortgage finance and real estate industries. Our counterparties also apply a "haircut” to the fair value of our pledged collateral, which reflects the underlying risk of the specific collateral and protects our counterparties against a decrease in collateral value, but conversely subjects us to counterparty risk and limits the amount we can borrow against our investment securities. Our master repurchase agreements do not specify the haircut, rather haircuts are determined on an individual repurchase transaction basis. Weighted average counterparty haircuts to the value of our agency securities and non-agency securities held as collateral as of March 31, 2013, were 5% and 32%, respectively. We did not experience significant volatility in the level of weighted average haircuts required by our lenders for the three months ended March 31, 2013.
Under our repurchase agreements, we may be required to pledge additional assets to repurchase agreement counterparties in the event the estimated fair value of the existing pledged collateral under such agreements declines and such counterparties demand additional collateral (a margin call), which may take the form of additional securities or cash. Specifically, margin calls would result from a decline in the value of our securities securing our repurchase agreements and prepayments on the mortgages securing such securities. Similarly, if the estimated fair value of our investment securities increases due to changes in interest rates or other factors, counterparties may release collateral back to us. Our repurchase agreements generally provide that the valuations for the securities securing our repurchase agreements are to be obtained from a generally recognized source agreed to by the parties. However, in certain circumstances and under certain of our repurchase agreements, our lenders have the sole discretion to determine the value of the securities securing our repurchase agreements. In such instances, our lenders are required to act in good faith in making such valuation determinations. Our repurchase agreements generally provide that in the event of a margin call we must provide additional securities or cash on the same business day that a margin call is made if the lender provides us notice prior to the margin notice deadline on such day.

49



As of March 31, 2013, we have met all margin requirements and had unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $311.3 million and unpledged securities of $604.7 million, excluding unsettled purchases of securities, available to meet margin calls on our repurchase agreements and derivative instruments as of March 31, 2013.
Although we believe that we will have adequate sources of liquidity available to us through repurchase agreement financing to execute our business strategy, there can be no assurances that repurchase agreement financing will be available to us upon the maturity of our current repurchase agreements to allow us to renew or replace our repurchase agreement financing on favorable terms or at all. If our repurchase agreement lenders default on their obligations to resell the underlying securities back to us at the end of the term, we could incur a loss equal to the difference between the value of the securities and the cash we originally received.
We maintain an interest rate risk management strategy under which we use derivative financial instruments to help manage the adverse impact of interest rates changes on the value of our investment portfolio as well as our cash flows. In particular, we attempt to mitigate the risk of the cost of our short-term variable rate liabilities increasing at a faster rate than the earnings of our long-term assets during a period of rising interest rates. The principal derivative instruments that we use are interest rate swaps, supplemented with the use of TBA agency securities, interest rate swaptions, and other instruments.
Refer to Notes 3 and 7 to our consolidated financial statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for further details regarding our outstanding interest rate swaps as of March 31, 2013 and the related activity for the period ended March 31, 2013.

Our derivative agreements typically require that we pledge/receive collateral on such agreements to/from our counterparties in a similar manner as we are required to under our repurchase agreements. However, our swaption agreements do not require our counterparties to post collateral to us in the event that such agreements increase in value. Our counterparties typically have the sole discretion to determine the value of the derivative instruments and the value of the collateral securing such instruments. In the event of a margin call, we must generally provide additional collateral on the same business day.

TBA Dollar Roll Transactions

We also enter into TBA dollar roll transactions as a means of investing in and financing agency securities. TBA dollar roll transactions represent a form of off-balance sheet financing and are accounted for as derivative instruments in our accompanying consolidated financial statements in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. Inclusive of our net TBA position as of March 31, 2013, our total "at risk" leverage, net of unsettled securities, was 7.4x our stockholders' equity.

Under certain market conditions, it may be uneconomical for us to roll our TBA contracts into future months and we may need to take physical delivery of the underlying securities. If we were required to take physical delivery, we would have to fund the total purchase commitment with cash or other financing sources and our liquidity position could be negatively impacted. As of March 31, 2013, the cost basis and fair value of the securities underlying our net long TBA position were both $4.5 billion.

Our TBA dollar roll contracts are also subject to margin requirements governed by the Mortgage-Backed Securities Division ("MBSD") of the Fixed Income Clearing Corporation and by our prime brokerage agreements, which may establish margin levels in excess of the MBSD. Such provisions require that we establish an initial margin based on the notional value of the TBA contract, which is subject to increase if the estimated fair value of our TBA contract or the estimated fair value of our pledged collateral declines. The MBSD has the sole discretion to determine the value of our TBA contracts and of the pledged collateral securing such contracts. In the event of a margin call, we must generally provide additional collateral on the same business day.

Settlement of our TBA obligations by taking delivery of the underlying securities as well as satisfying margin requirements could negatively impact our liquidity position. However, since we do not use TBA dollar roll transactions as our primary source of financing, we believe that we will have adequate sources of liquidity to meet such obligations.
Asset Sales and TBA Eligible Securities

We maintain a portfolio of highly liquid agency MBS securities. We may sell our agency securities through the TBA market by delivering securities into TBA contracts for the sale of securities, subject to "good delivery" provisions promulgated by the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association ("SIFMA"). We may alternatively sell agency securities that have more unique attributes on a specified basis when such securities trade at a premium over generic TBA securities or if the securities are not otherwise eligible for TBA delivery. Since the agency TBA market is the second most liquid market (second

50



to the U.S. Treasury market), maintaining a significant level of agency securities eligible for TBA delivery enhances our liquidity profile and provides price support for our TBA eligible securities in a rising interest rate scenario at or above generic TBA prices. As of March 31, 2013, approximately 89% of our agency MBS portfolio was eligible for TBA delivery.
Off-Balance Sheet Arrangements
As of March 31, 2013, we did not maintain any relationships with unconsolidated entities or financial partnerships, such as entities often referred to as structured finance, or special purpose or variable interest entities, established for the purpose of facilitating off-balance sheet arrangements or other contractually narrow or limited purposes. Further, as of March 31, 2013, we had not guaranteed any obligations of unconsolidated entities or entered into any commitment or intent to provide funding to any such entities.
FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENTS

All statements contained herein that are not historical facts including, but not limited to, statements regarding anticipated activity are forward looking in nature and involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Among the factors that could cause actual results to differ materially are the following: (i) changes in the market value of our assets; (ii) changes in net interest rate spreads; (iii) changes in the amount or timing of cash flows from our investment portfolio; (iv) risks associated with our hedging activities; (v) availability and terms of financing arrangements; (vi) further actions by the U.S. government to stabilize the economy; (vii) changes in our business or investment strategy; (viii) legislative and regulatory changes (including changes to laws governing the taxation of REITs); (ix) our ability to meet the requirements of a REIT (including income and asset requirements); and (x) our ability to remain exempt from registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940. For a discussion of the risks and uncertainties which could cause actual results to differ from those contained in the forward looking statements, please see the information under the caption “Risk Factors” described in this Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q. We caution readers not to place undue reliance on any such forward-looking statements, which statements are made pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and, as such, speak only as of the date made.
Item 3. Quantitative and Qualitative Disclosures About Market Risk
Market risk is the exposure to loss resulting from changes in market factors such as interest rates, foreign currency exchange rates, commodity prices and equity prices. The primary market risks that we are exposed to are interest rate risk, prepayment risk, spread risk, liquidity risk, credit risk, extension risk and inflation risk.
Interest Rate Risk
Interest rate risk is highly sensitive to many factors, including governmental monetary and tax policies, domestic and international economic and political considerations and other factors beyond our control.
Changes in the general level of interest rates, including both parallel and non-parallel interest rate moves, can affect our net interest income, which is the difference between the interest income earned on interest-earning assets and the interest expense incurred in connection with our interest-bearing liabilities, by affecting the spread between our interest-earning assets and interest bearing liabilities. Changes in the general level of interest rates can also affect our periodic settlements of interest rate swaps and the value of our interest rate swaps which impact our net income. Changes in the level of interest rates can also affect the rate of prepayments of our securities and the value of the securities that constitute our investment portfolio, which affects our net income and ability to realize gains from the sale of these assets and impacts our ability and the amount that we can borrow against these securities.
We may utilize a variety of financial instruments to limit the effects of changes in interest rates on our operations, including interest rate swap agreements, interest rate swaptions, interest rate cap or floor contracts and futures or forward contracts. We may also purchase or short TBA securities, U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. Treasury futures contracts, purchase or write put or call options on TBA securities or we may invest in other types of mortgage derivative securities, such as interest-only securities, and synthetic total return swaps. When we use these types of derivatives to hedge the risk of interest-earning assets or interest-bearing liabilities, we may be subject to certain risks, including the risk that losses on a hedge position will reduce the funds available for payments to holders of our common stock and that the losses may exceed the amount we invested in the instruments.
Our profitability and the value of our investment portfolio (including derivatives used for economic hedging purposes) may be adversely affected during any period as a result of changing interest rates including changes in forward yield curves.


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Primary measures of an instrument's price sensitivity to interest rate fluctuations are its duration and convexity. The duration of our investment portfolio changes with interest rates and tends to increase when rates rise and decrease when rates fall. This "negative convexity" generally increases the interest rate exposure of our investment portfolio by more than what is measured by duration alone.

We estimate the duration and convexity of our portfolio using both a third-party risk management system and market data.
We review the duration estimates from the third-party model and may make adjustments based on our Manager's judgment. These adjustments are intended to, in our Manager's opinion, better reflect the unique characteristics and market trading conventions associated with certain types of securities, such as HARP and lower loan balance securities. These adjustments generally result in shorter durations than what the unadjusted third party model would otherwise produce. Without these adjustments, in rising rate scenarios, the longer unadjusted durations may underestimate price projections on certain securities with slower prepayment characteristics, such as HARP and lower loan balance securities, to a level below those of generic or TBA securities. However, in our Manager's judgment, because these securities are typically deliverable into TBA contracts, the price of these securities is unlikely to drop below the TBA price in rising rate scenarios. The accuracy of the estimated duration of our portfolio and projected agency security prices depends on our Manager's assumptions and judgments. Our Manager may discontinue making these duration adjustments in the future or may choose to make different adjustments. Other models could produce materially different results.

The table below quantifies the estimated changes in net interest income (including periodic interest costs on our interest rate swaps) and the estimated changes in the fair value of our investment portfolio (including derivatives and other securities used for economic hedging purposes) and in our net asset value should interest rates go up or down by 50 and 100 basis points, assuming the yield curves of the rate shocks will be parallel to each other and the current yield curve and includes the impact of both duration and convexity.

All changes in income and value are measured as percentage changes from the projected net interest income, investment
portfolio value and net asset value at the base interest rate scenario. The base interest rate scenario assumes interest rates as of
March 31, 2013. Given the low level of interest rates, we also apply a floor of 0% for all anticipated interest rates included in our analysis, such that any hypothetical interest rate decrease would have a limited positive impact on our funding costs beyond a certain level. However, because estimated prepayment speeds are impacted to a lesser degree by this floor, it is expected that an increase in our prepayment speeds as a result of a hypothetical interest rate decrease would result in an acceleration of our premium amortization and could result in reinvestment of such prepaid principal into lower yielding assets.

Actual results could differ materially from estimates, especially in the current market environment. To the extent that these estimates or other assumptions do not hold true, which is likely in a period of high price volatility, actual results will likely differ materially from projections and could be larger or smaller than the estimates in the table below. Moreover, if different models were employed in the analysis, materially different projections could result. Lastly, while the tables below reflect the estimated impact of interest rate increases and decreases on a static portfolio, we may from time to time sell any of our agency or non-agency securities as a part of our overall management of our investment portfolio.
 
 
Percentage Change in Projected
Change in Interest Rate
 
Net Interest Income (1)
 
Portfolio Value (2) (3)
 
Net Asset Value (2) (4)
+100 basis points
 
(6.8
)%
 
(1.7
)%
 
(9.2
)%
+50 basis points
 
(3.2
)%
 
(0.6
)%
 
(3.3
)%
-50 basis points
 
3.0
 %
 
(0.4
)%
 
(2.1
)%
-100 basis points
 
(5.6
)%
 
(2.4
)%
 
(12.8
)%
————————
(1)
Estimated dollar change in net interest income expressed as a percent of net interest income based on asset yields and cost of funds as of March 31, 2013. Includes the effect of periodic interest costs on our interest rate swaps, but excludes TBA dollar roll income and costs associated with other supplemental hedges, such as swaptions and short U.S. Treasury or TBA positions. Estimated dollar change in net interest income does not include the one time impact of retroactive "catch-up" premium amortization benefit/cost due to an increase/decrease in the projected CPR. Down rate scenarios assume a floor of 0% for anticipated interest rates.
(2)     Includes the effect of derivatives.
(3)    Estimated change in portfolio value expressed as a percent of the total fair value of our investment portfolio as of March 31, 2013.
(4) 
Estimated change in net asset value expressed as a percent of stockholders' equity as of March 31, 2013.

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Prepayment Risk

Premiums and discounts associated with the purchase of agency securities and non-agency securities of higher credit quality are amortized or accreted into interest income over the projected lives of the securities, including contractual payments and estimated prepayments using the interest method. Changes to the GSEs' underwriting standards, further modifications to existing U.S. Government sponsored programs such as HARP, or the implementation of new programs could materially impact prepayment speeds. In addition, GSE buyouts of loans in imminent risk of default, loans that have been modified, or loans that have defaulted will generally be reflected as prepayments on agency securities and also increase the uncertainty around these estimates. Our policy for estimating prepayment speeds for calculating the effective yield is to evaluate published prepayment data for similar securities, market consensus and current market conditions. If the actual prepayment experienced differs from our estimate of prepayments, we will be required to make an adjustment to the amortization or accretion of premiums and discounts that would have an impact on future income.
Spread Risk
    
When the market spread between the yield on our agency securities and benchmark interest rates, our net book value could decline if the value of our agency securities fall by more than the offsetting fair value increases on our hedging instruments, creating what we refer to as "spread risk" or "basis risk". The spread risk associated with our agency securities and the resulting fluctuations in fair value of these securities can occur independent of changes in benchmark interest rates and may relate to other factors impacting the mortgage and fixed income markets, such as actual or anticipated monetary policy actions by the Federal Reserve, market liquidity, or changes in required rates of return on different assets. Consequently, while we use interest rate swaps and other supplemental hedges to attempt to protect against moves in interest rates, such instruments typically will not protect our net book value against spread risk.
Liquidity Risk

The primary liquidity risk for us arises from financing long-term assets with shorter-term borrowings through repurchase agreements. Our assets that are pledged to secure repurchase agreements are agency securities, non-agency securities and cash. As of March 31, 2013, we had unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $311.3 million and unpledged securities of $604.7 million, excluding unsettled purchases of securities, available to meet margin calls on our repurchase agreements, derivative instruments and for other corporate purposes. However, should the value of our securities pledged as collateral or the value of our derivative instruments suddenly decrease, margin calls relating to our repurchase and derivative agreements could increase, causing an adverse change in our liquidity position. Further, there is no assurance that we will always be able to renew (or roll) our repurchase agreements. In addition, our counterparties have the option to increase our haircuts (margin requirements) on the assets we pledge, thereby reducing the amount that can be borrowed against an asset even if they agree to renew or roll the repurchase agreement. Significantly higher haircuts can reduce our ability to leverage our portfolio or even force us to sell assets, especially if correlated with asset price declines or faster prepayment rates on our assets.
In addition, we may utilize TBA dollar roll transactions as a means of acquiring and financing purchases of agency mortgage-backed securities. Under certain economic conditions we may be unable to roll our TBA dollar roll transactions prior to the settlement date and we could have to take physical delivery of the underlying securities and settle our obligations for cash, which could negatively impact our liquidity position, result in defaults or force us to sell assets under adverse conditions.
Credit Risk
We are exposed to credit risk related to our non-agency investments, certain derivative transactions, and our collateral held by funding and derivative counterparties. We accept credit exposure at levels we deem prudent as an integral part of our diversified investment strategy. Therefore, we may retain all or a portion of the credit risk on our non-agency investments. We seek to manage this risk through prudent asset selection, pre-acquisition due diligence, post-acquisition performance monitoring, sale of assets where we have identified negative credit trends and the use of various types of credit enhancements. We may also use non-recourse financing, which limits our exposure to credit losses to the specific pool of mortgages subject to the non-recourse financing. Our overall management of credit exposure may also include the use of credit default swaps or other financial derivatives that we believe are appropriate. Additionally, we intend to vary the percentage mix of our non-agency mortgage investments and agency mortgage investments in an effort to actively adjust our credit exposure and to improve the risk/return profile of our investment portfolio. Our credit risk related to certain derivative transactions is largely mitigated through daily adjustments to collateral pledged based on changes in market value and we limit our counterparties to major financial institutions with acceptable credit ratings. There is no guarantee our efforts to manage credit risk will be successful and we could suffer significant losses if credit performance is worse than our expectations or if economic conditions worsen.

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Extension Risk
The projected weighted-average life and the duration (or interest rate sensitivity) of our investments is based on our Manager’s assumptions regarding the rate at which the borrowers will prepay the underlying mortgage loans or default on their loans. In general, we use interest rate swaps to help manage our funding cost on our investments in the event that interest rates rise. These swaps allow us to reduce our funding exposure on the notional amount of the swap for a specified period of time by establishing a fixed rate to pay in exchange for receiving a floating rate that generally tracks our financing costs under our repurchase agreements.
However, if prepayment rates decrease in a rising interest rate environment, the average life or duration of our fixed-rate assets generally extends. This could have a negative impact on our results from operations, as our interest rate swap maturities are fixed and will, therefore, cover a smaller percentage of our funding exposure on our mortgage assets to the extent that their average lives increase due to slower prepayments. This situation may also cause the market value of our securities collateralized by fixed rate mortgages to decline by more than otherwise would be the case while most of our hedging instruments (with the exception of short TBA mortgage positions, interest-only securities and certain other supplemental hedging instruments) would not receive any incremental offsetting gains. In extreme situations, we may be forced to sell assets to maintain adequate liquidity, which could cause us to incur realized losses.
Inflation Risk
Virtually all of our assets and liabilities are interest rate sensitive in nature. As a result, interest rates and other factors influence our performance more so than does inflation. Changes in interest rates do not necessarily correlate with inflation rates or changes in inflation rates. Further, our consolidated financial statements are prepared in accordance with GAAP and our distributions are determined by our Board of Directors based primarily on our net income as calculated for income tax purposes. In each case, our activities and balance sheet are measured with reference to historical cost and/or fair market value without considering inflation.
Item 4. Controls and Procedures

We maintain disclosure controls and procedures that are designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed in our Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "Exchange Act") reports is recorded, processed, summarized and reported within the time periods specified in the SEC's rules and forms, and that such information is accumulated and communicated to our management, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, as appropriate, to allow timely decisions regarding required disclosure based on the definition of "disclosure controls and procedures" as promulgated under the Exchange Act and the rules and regulations thereunder. In designing and evaluating the disclosure controls and procedures, management recognized that any controls and procedures, no matter how well designed and operated, can provide only reasonable assurance of achieving the desired control objectives, and management necessarily was required to apply its judgment in evaluating the cost-benefit relationship of possible controls and procedures.

We, including our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer, evaluated the effectiveness of the design and operation of our disclosure controls and procedures as of March 31, 2013. Based on the foregoing, our Chief Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer concluded that our disclosure controls and procedures were effective.

Changes in Internal Control over Financial Reporting

There have been no significant changes in our internal controls over financial reporting or in other factors that could significantly affect the internal controls over financial reporting during the quarter ended March 31, 2013.



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PART II
Item 3. Legal Proceedings
 
We are not party to any material litigation or legal proceedings, or to the best of our knowledge, any threatened litigation or legal proceedings, which, in our opinion, individually or in the aggregate, would have a material adverse effect on our results of operations or financial condition.
Item 1A. Risk Factors
There have been no material changes to the risk factors previously disclosed in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2012.

Item 2. Unregistered Sales of Equity Securities and Use of Proceeds

None.

Item 3. Defaults Upon Senior Securities

None.

Item 4. Mine Safety Disclosures
Not applicable.
Item 5. Other Information
 
None.

Item 6. Exhibits

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Exhibit No. 
 
Description 
*3.1
 
American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. Articles of Amendment and Restatement, incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 3.1 of Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011 (File No. 001-35260), filed November 14, 2011.
 
 
 
*3.2
 
American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp. Amended and Restated Bylaws, as amended by Amendment No. 1, incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to Amendment No. 4 to Form S-11 (Registration Statement No. 333-173238), filed July 29, 2011.
 
 
 
*4.1
 
Form of Certificate for Common Stock, incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 4.1 to Amendment No. 3 to Form S-11 (Registration Statement No. 333-173238), filed July 20, 2011.
 
 
 
*4.2
 
Instruments defining the rights of holders of securities: See Article VI of our Articles of Amendment and Restatement, incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 3.1 of Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2011 (File No. 001-35260), filed November 14, 2011.
 
 
 
*4.3
 
Instruments defining the rights of holders of securities: See Article VII of our Amended and Restated Bylaws, as amended by Amendment No. 1, incorporated herein by reference to Exhibit 3.2 to Amendment No. 4 to Form S-11 (Registration Statement No. 333-173238), filed July 29, 2011.
 
 
 
31.1
 
Certification of CEO Pursuant to Section 302(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
 
 
 
31.2
 
Certification of CFO Pursuant to Section 302(a) of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
 
 
 
32
 
Certification of CEO and CFO Pursuant to Section 906 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002.
 
 
 
101.INS**
 
XBRL Instance Document
 
 
 
101.SCH**
 
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Schema Document
 
 
 
101.CAL**
 
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Calculation Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.LAB**
 
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Labels Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.PRE**
 
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Presentation Linkbase Document
 
 
 
101.DEF**
 
XBRL Taxonomy Extension Definition Linkbase Document
______________________
*        Previously filed
**        This exhibit is being furnished rather than filed, and shall not be deemed incorporated by reference into any filing, in accordance with Item 601 of Regulation S-K

56




SIGNATURES
 
Pursuant to the requirements of Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the registrant has duly caused this report to be signed on its behalf by the undersigned, thereunto duly authorized.
 
American Capital Mortgage Investment Corp.
 
 
By:
 
/s/    MALON WILKUS 
 
 
Malon Wilkus
 
 
Chair of the Board of Directors
and Chief Executive Officer
 
Date: May 10, 2013
 


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