Washington Federal, Inc. (WAFD) said Monday that it has sold $2.4 billion of fixed rate mortgage-backed securities for a pre-tax gain of $95 million in the last ten days.
These securities yielded an annualized 3.22 percent in the month of July.
In the same period, the company pre-paid $876 million of long term debt at a pre-tax loss of $95 million. The weighted average rate on the retired debt was 3.94 percent.
In related transactions, the company purchased a mix of short and longer term assets totaling $1.7 billion with an anticipated weighted average yield of 1.85 percent, and restructured an additional $100 million of long term debt to lengthen maturity and reduce the weighted average rate from 4.04 percent to 3.33 percent.
The company noted that it has taken these steps to reduce its interest rate risk and improve its future earnings potential.
Washington Federal said that an ongoing review of the investment portfolio and long-term debt is likely to result in additional transactions.
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