CION Investment Corporation (NYSE:CION) 2024 First Quarter Financial Report Call Record May 9, 2024
CION Investment Corporation exceeded profit expectations. Reported EPS was $0.604, compared to estimate of $0.41. CION isn’t among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
operator: Welcome to the CION Investment Corporation Q1 2024 Financial Results Conference. All participants are currently in listen-only mode. A formal presentation will be followed by a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] Please note that this meeting is being recorded. We are proud to introduce Charlie Alestia, Managing Director and Head of Investor Relations for CION Investment Corporation. thank you. You can start.
Charlie Alestia: good morning. Welcome to CION Investment Corporation’s Q1 2024 Earnings Conference Call. An earnings press release was distributed this morning before the market opened. A copy of the release and a supplemental earnings presentation are available on the “Investor Resources” section of the company’s website at www.cionbdc.com. This should be viewed in conjunction with the company’s Form 10-Q filed with the SEC. Please note that this conference call is being recorded for playback purposes. Please note that today’s conference call may contain forward-looking statements, which are not guarantees of future performance or results and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements as a result of many factors, including those described in the Company’s SEC filings.
Also joining today’s conference call will be Michael Reisner, Co-Chief Executive Officer of CION Investment Corporation. Greg Bressner, President and Chief Investment Officer; Keith Franz Chief Financial Officer; I would now like to turn the call over to Michael Reisner. Please, Michael.
Michael Reisner: Thank you, Charlie, and good morning everyone. This morning, the company continued its momentum from 2023, reporting another strong quarter. The profitability of our conservatively positioned portfolio remains strong, with annualized net investment return ROE of approximately 15% in the first quarter. Since its direct listing in 2021, CION has continued to generate strong net investment returns ROE, similar to many of its BDC peers trading above their net asset value. Our net asset value decreased slightly quarter-on-quarter, primarily due to unrealized mark-to-market adjustments for the equity portion of our portfolio, but continued investment resulted in net asset value of over 6% compared to the same period last year. Increased. Earnings, disciplined portfolio management, and aggressive share buybacks.
Net investment income for the quarter was $0.60 per share, a significant increase from $0.40 per share in the prior quarter. This was driven by the strong underlying performance of our portfolio companies and the yield enhancement provisions noted in our previous earnings call and realized during the quarter. As a result, we once again exceeded his base dividend of $0.34 per share for the quarter. Given our strong dividend coverage and long-term profitability outlook for our portfolio, we are pleased to announce that we are increasing our quarterly base dividend to $0.36 per share from $0.34 last quarter. think. Additionally, as we mentioned on our last call, we plan to announce an additional dividend next month. The underlying credit performance of our portfolio remained strong in the first quarter, with receivables improving to 0.86% of fair value.
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