Ellington Credit reports Q1 economic return, GAAP EPS and NII

Ellington Credit (NYSE: EARN ) held its first-quarter earnings conference call on Thursday.

Below is the complete transcript from the call.

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Access the full call at Summary Ellington Credit reported an economic return of 8.1% for the quarter, with a GAAP net income of $0.33 per share and net investment income of $0.16 per share.

The company strategically repositioned its portfolio, taking advantage of market volatility to expand and enhance its CLO investments, resulting in higher projected yields.

Future growth is expected to be driven by deploying excess liquidity, adding leverage, and rotating into higher-yielding investments, while maintaining credit quality.

Ellington Credit plans to increase net investment income, evidenced by a 20% higher run rate in July compared to the second quarter.

Management expressed confidence in the current dividend level and highlighted the company's flexible balance sheet and active trading strategy as key strengths.

Full Transcript OPERATOR Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.

Thank you for standing by.

Welcome to Ellington Credit First Fiscal Quarter Ended June 30, 2026 Results Conference Call.

Today's call is being recorded.

At this time, all participants have been placed in a listen-only mode, and the floor will be open for your questions following the presentation.

If you would like to ask a question at that time, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad.

If your question has been answered, you may remove yourself from the queue by pressing star 2.

Lastly, if you should require operator assistance, please press star 1.

It is now my pleasure to turn the floor over to Aladdin Shillay, Associate General Counsel.

Sir, you may begin.

Aladdin Shillay, Associate General Counsel Thank you.

Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.

These statements are not historical in nature and involve risks and uncertainties detailed in our registration statement on Form N-2.

Actual results may differ materially from these statements; they should not be considered to be predictions of future events.

The company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Joining me today are Larry Penn, Chief Executive Officer of Ellington Credit; Greg Borenstein, Portfolio Manager; and Chris Smirnoff, Chief Financial Officer.

Our earnings presentation is available on our website, ellingtoncredit.com.

Today's call will track that presentation, and all statements and references to figures are qualified by the important notice and endnotes at the back of the presentation.

With that, I'll turn the call over to Larry.

Larry Penn, CEO Thanks, Aladdin, and good morning, everyone.

We appreciate your time and interest in Ellington Credit, which we often refer to by its New York Stock Exchange ticker EARN, or EARN for short.

Please turn to Slide 3.

The second calendar quarter marked an important inflection point for EARN's portfolio.

The market sell-off earlier in the year widened credit spreads and significantly expanded the CLO opportunity set, and we moved quickly, issuing unsecured debt in late March, rapidly deploying the proceeds in April, and actively repositioning the portfolio throughout.

Those actions proved to be well timed.

As the second quarter progressed, credit fundamentals improved and active trading and rotation allowed us to further upgrade portfolio quality.

For the quarter, we generated an economic return of 8.1%, non-annualized, increased our NAV per share, and strengthened the portfolio's long-term return profile.