Shares of Irvine’s Impac Mortgage Holdings Inc. dropped 14.6% Wednesday after the company reported a loss in the second quarter.
The company said late yesterday that it lost $55 million in the period on a $98 million unrealized charge related to its derivative investments. Impac posted a profit of $143 million a year ago.
Income available to shareholders dropped nearly 30% to $41 million. Impac is a real estate investment trust that pays out at least 90% of its income in dividends.
“The mortgage industry continues to experience net interest margin compression from further increases in short term interest rates, continued flattening of the yield curve, heightened prepayment speeds and competitive pricing pressures,” said Joseph Tomkinson, chief executive, in a statement.
“Despite this challenging environment, the company’s operating businesses continued to show solid gains in terms of acquisitions and origination activity and credit performance,” he said.
The Federal Reserve Bank raised a key short-term rate yesterday for the tenth time in more than a year to 3.5%.
Impac lowered its dividend outlook for the third quarter to 50 cents to 60 cents per share. In the first half of the year its quarterly dividend was 75 cents per share.
The income drop at Impac follows another mortgage lender’s profit drop in the second quarter. Irvine-based New Century Financial Corp. reported a 42% drop in earnings before taxes in the period.
Impac’s shares closed at nearly $14 on Wednesday.
