A quick look at Impac Mortgage Holdings’ (IMH) stocks shows that the lender is faring quite well in 2015 thanks to recent business initiatives.
On a yearly basis, the stock is up 58.99%, and on a monthly basis, it is up 77.4%. And most notably, the stock is up 81.27% over the last three months.
On Jan. 8, Impac agreed to acquire the mortgage operations of CashCall, putting a name to industry talks first announced on Dec. 12.
A good portion of the surge in stock is from the acquisition of CashCall, Bill Ashmore, president of Impac Mortgage said in an interview with HousingWire.
“It is a consumer direct company that is giving us a very large retail presence. It also allows us to expand our non-Qualified Mortgage products and our VA and FHA products,” he said
Impac reentered the non-QM market in July 2014, announcing four new products: Alt-QM Jumbo, Alt-QM Agency, Alt-QM Income and Alt-QM Investor.
“We believe there is an underserved market for these programs where certain borrowers are finding financing for purchase or refinance is either non-existent or available with stringent and costly parameters,” said Ashmore.
CashCall Mortgage’s operations are a centralized retail call center where loan applications are received and taken by loan agents directly from consumers and through the Internet.
In the fourth quarter of 2014, CashCall’s mortgage division volume was approximately $800 million and is expected to add significant retail direct origination volume to Impac’s Mortgage platform beginning in 2015.
“CashCall is still originating in the name of CashCall, which is a big reason the stock has increased so dramatically not only in terms of volume but also in terms of earnings. CashCall has such a well-respected brand name,” said Ashmore. “They are currently only doing conventional loans and just started advertising non-QM.”
Ashmore explained that a significant benefit to the company is that it is centrally located and can ramp up and slow down operation without closing offices.
“We can absorb a spike and downshift without a lot of shifts in business,” he said.
The recent growth goes beyond just the acquisition too.
“We have a huge spike in volume just because of conventional refinance, and we haven’t even launched conventional VA loans at CashCall,” Ashmore said. “We are starting to see a good spike in business in wholesale and correspondent. We are also gaining volume with other hirings and things that we have done in wholesale and correspondent.”
