The Federal Agricultural Mortgage Corp.'s net earnings rose in the first quarter to $13.3 million, more than seven times higher than its income of $1.8 million during the same period in 2014, the rural mortgage lender announced Monday.
Net interest income increased 74% from the first quarter of 2014, to $30.8 million, on a strong spike in interest income from loans. Net effective spread was $29.3 million versus $26.4 million a year earlier.
Non-interest income totaled $475,000, up from a $3 million loss the year before. The swing to profit stemmed from much smaller losses on derivatives and hedging. Non-interest expense also grew from year-to-year to $8.3 million from $7.9 million, mostly on higher costs associated with employee compensation and benefits and a charge stemming from the release of reserves for losses.
Overall during the quarter, Farmer Mac brought in $502.3 million of new business volume, mostly from Institutional Credit AgVantage securities and farm and ranch loans. Altogether outstanding business volume swelled to $14.7 billion from the previous quarter.
Adjusted, non-GAAP earnings per share of 80 cents were slightly higher than the average estimate of 78 cents by analysts polled by Bloomberg.
