loanDepot, Inc. (LDI) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon and welcome to loanDepot's Second Quarter 2026 Earnings Call. After today's prepared remarks, we will host a question and answer session. [Operator Instructions] I would now like to turn the call over to Gerhard Erdelji, Senior Vice President, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining our second quarter 2026 earnings call. Before we begin, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call may include forward-looking statements regarding the company's operating and financial performance in future periods. For more information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, please refer to the earnings release that we issued earlier today, which is available on our website at investors.loandepot.com. Our presentation today contains certain non-GAAP financial measures that we believe provide additional insight into analyzing and benchmarking the performance and value of our business and facilitating company-to-company operating performance comparisons. For more details on these non-GAAP financial measures, including reconciliation to the most directly comparable GAAP measures, please refer to today's earnings release. A webcast and a transcript of this call will be posted on our website after the conclusion of this call. On today's call, we have loanDepot's Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Anthony Hsieh; and Chief Financial Officer, David Hayes. They will provide an overview of our quarter, a review of our operating results, and our outlook. We are also joined by Chief Investment Officer, Jeff DerGurahian; and Chief Digital Officer, Dominick Marchetti, to help answer your questions after our prepared remarks. With that, I'll turn things over to Anthony to get us started. Anthony?

Thank you, Gerhard. I appreciate everyone joining us on the call today. When I returned as full-time CEO 1 year ago, I set a clear transformation agenda to position loanDepot for profitable market share growth in any macro environment. We have moved decisively to reshape the business and are starting to see signs of our progress. We are making more loans faster and at a lower cost. In the second quarter, revenue increased, operating leverage improved, and our net loss narrowed substantially, even as interest rates rose meaningfully beginning in March. While we are in the early innings of our transformation, the pace of improvement accelerated as the quarter progressed, with June demonstrating the strongest results so far this year. A central driver of this momentum is the progress we made during the second quarter in executing our strategic expansion into home equity lending. This represents a significant expansion opportunity within a market supported by approximately $35 trillion of U.S. homeowner equity. It represents a potential market size more than double total mortgage debt outstanding. Importantly, these are the same homeowners we have long served through traditional refinance products. In a higher rate environment, however, home equity products can allow qualified borrowers to access liquidity while preserving an attractive first mortgage rate and may offer a more compelling value proposition than higher cost alternatives such as unsecured personal loans, credit cards, and certain small business financing products. Home equity lending is more stable, less rate sensitive, and less seasonal than refinance and purchase mortgage lending. It is also stickier in that it meets an ongoing customer need. Loan balances are smaller, but gain on sale and revenue are both typically higher, and our cost to produce is significantly lower. We are now seeing the result of this pivot. During the quarter, we increased unit volume by 25% from the first quarter, reflecting the success of our launch into this product segment. We believe that when rates fall and traditional refinance activity returns, home equity will remain an attractive product for a large segment of the market, particularly those customers with ultra-low pandemic-era interest rates that are unlikely to be in the money for traditional refinance. Home equity lending broadens our addressable market and complements our traditional purchase and refinance business. It addresses our customers' liquidity needs and benefits from attractive unit economics. The second quarter results demonstrate that this strategic shift is beginning to translate into measurable growth, stronger margins, and improved operating leverage. During the year, we continued to expand our core mortgage franchise by adding builder partners in our joint venture channel, and branch locations in our retail channel. That growth drove a 33% increase in purchase market share in the second quarter and reinforces the durability of our diversified origination platform. It's important to understand that we believe that we are the #1 independent mortgage company financing new home construction for builders. This is a critical competitive advantage. Our ability to pivot towards home equity and continue to grow purchase market share reflects the agility of our team and the adaptability of loanDepot's origination model. Few originators have the multi-channel distribution, customer relationship, or operating expertise to make that transition at scale. We believe we are uniquely positioned with our nationally recognized brand, valuable servicing portfolio, diversified channels, including our growing wholesale channel, proven ability to develop loan officers organically, industry-leading recapture capabilities, and technology-enabled customer acquisition platform, allowing us to redirect capacity towards a product that offers the greatest customer and shareholder value at a given rate environment. Together, these assets help generate customer leads at the top of the funnel and support a broad distribution network that includes retail and partner channels, as well as what we believe to be 1 of only 2 scaled direct lending platforms. Our ability to efficiently convert marketing investments at the top of the funnel into customer leads and new customer acquisition is an important market differentiator. The market is extremely fragmented, giving us a huge opportunity to apply our differentiated assets to profitably grow market share. Producing, managing, and directing leads to our loan officers has been a core competency since founding the company. With new technology powering lead conversion, we expect to create more customers while also driving down marketing costs. Powering our growth is our ability to organically develop loan officers. Over the past year, we increased our net loan officer count by 18%. This growth is broad-based and consists of newly trained loan officers graduating from our proprietary ACES program in our direct channel, and experienced loan officers with established relationships in our retail channel. This quarter's results are evidence of the progress we have made over the past year. As we strengthened our platform, rebuilt our management team with leaders that have deep expertise across mortgage, technology, and marketing, expanded our loan officer base, improved marketing performance, and invested in technology and AI-enabled capabilities designed to enhance productivity and the customer experience. To punctuate this progress over the past year, we have increased return on marketing by 70%. We increased marketing lead to funded loan conversion by 50%. We reduced marketing cost per funding by 34%, reduced total cost per funded loan by 12%, and increased funded loan units per loan officer by 18%. As we continue to scale the platform, we believe there are opportunities to realize additional operating leverage across our business in a range of market environments. Our technology-enabled multi-channel platform creates a unique opportunity to partner with additional financial service providers that can benefit from our scale, distribution, and sales culture. Few originators have the resources or expertise to make this transition at scale. When refinance and purchase opportunities return, we will be ready to move just as quickly to capture them. This is what it means to be built to compete across market cycles. While important work remains, we believe we have the discipline and focus to increase operating leverage and cost containment necessary to continue progressing towards sustainable profitability over time. With that, I will now turn the call over to Dave, who will take us through our financial results in more detail. David?

Thanks, Anthony, and good afternoon, everyone. The second quarter marked another meaningful step forward in our financial performance, demonstrating that we can grow volume while maintaining a focus on efficiency and profitability. We reported an adjusted net loss of $29 million in the second quarter compared to an adjusted net loss of $34 million in the first quarter, due primarily to higher adjusted revenue while limiting expense growth to primarily volume-related costs. During the second quarter, our loan origination volume was $8.0 billion for the quarter, an increase of 4% from the prior quarter's volume of $7.7 billion. This was within the guidance we issued last quarter of between $7.25 billion and $9.25 billion. The increase in closed loan volume was more notable, given the mix shift towards smaller, 5x5 home loan products, which carry a smaller loan balance compared to traditional firsts. On a unit basis, we increased volume 25% during the quarter, reflecting the success of the product and the investment in our loan officers. As Anthony stated, we increased both loan officers and their productivity since last year. Pull-through weighted rate lock volume was $6.6 billion, which represented a 20% decrease from the prior quarter's volume of $8.3 billion. As a reminder, pull-through weighted rate lock volume is down primarily due to the product mix shift to HELOC, which does not record a lock. Pull-through weighted rate lock volume also came in within the guidance we issued last quarter of $5.75 billion to $7.75 billion and contributed to adjusted total revenue of $308 million, which compared favorably to $299 million in the first quarter. Our pull-through weighted gain on sale margin for the second quarter came in at 345 basis points, within our guidance range of 330 to 360 basis points and up compared to 271 basis points in the prior quarter. Our higher gain on sale margin primarily reflected product mix shift. The higher rate environment suppressed demand for first trust deed loans, but demand for higher margin 5x5 home loan HELOC products increased. Their contribution can be seen in the 60% increase in origination income from the prior quarter. Servicing fee income increased from $109 million in the first quarter to $112 million in the second quarter, primarily due to a larger portfolio size and higher interest credit on our escrow balances. We hedge our servicing portfolio, so we do not record the full impact of the changes in fair value in results of our operations. We believe this strategy helps protect against volatility in our earnings and liquidity. Our strategy for hedging the servicing portfolio is dynamic, and we adjust our hedge positions in reaction to changing industry environments. Maintaining a strong liquidity position remains a top priority for us, and as such, we took advantage of strong market conditions to monetize approximately $10 billion of our servicing rights post-quarter end. We expect this trade to settle later in the year and will be reflected in the coming quarters. Our total expenses for the second quarter increased by $2 million, or less than 1% from the prior quarter. The primary drivers of this increase were higher commissions and direct origination expenses, reflecting the increase in origination volume. This was partially offset by the progress on operating leverage metrics that Anthony mentioned. Looking ahead to the third quarter, we expect pull-through weighted lock volume of between $5.25 billion and $7.25 billion, and origination volume of between $6.25 billion and $8.25 billion. These ranges reflect an ongoing mix shift as our 5x5 home loan product continues to be a popular product in the current rate environment. HELOC volume is not reflected in the lock volume, but it is reflected in the closed loan volume. It is also worth noting that the shift to HELOC production resulted in higher unit volume and contribution margins, albeit at smaller average loan sizes. We expect our third quarter pull-through weighted gain on sale margin to be between 360 and 390 basis points. Our total expenses are expected to decrease somewhat in the third quarter, primarily due to the benefit of repurchasing our corporate debt at a discount, partially offset by higher volume-related costs, as we continue to drive growth in our HELOC product. As part of our ongoing cost management strategy, the company has begun actioning approximately $12 million of annualized productivity initiatives progressing through the remainder of the year. We ended the quarter with $229 million in cash, decreasing by $48 million from the first quarter. However, the previously mentioned MSR sale and other financing strategies in-flight should mitigate this decrease going forward. Additionally, we repurchased $16 million of senior notes at an average purchase price of 90% of par during the quarter and repurchased an additional $27 million of notes at an average purchase price of 86% of par post-quarter end through July 30, 2026. Finally, we continue to evaluate opportunities to optimize our capital structure. Addressing the company's bond maturities remains a high priority for the management team, and we're evaluating a range of options with the help of our retained advisers. Anthony stated this earlier, but it bears repeating. Our goals are to continue investing and driving top line and market share growth, reducing our costs and increasing operating leverage, and applying automation and technology across the origination and servicing businesses to achieve consistent profitability in any environment. With that, we're ready to turn it back over to the operator for Q&A. Operator?

[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from the line of Douglas Harter with BTIG.

On your guidance and as you think about the third quarter, how should we think about the mix between HELOC and first mortgage, and how that influences kind of the gain on sale range that you gave and volume range? And I guess included in that, how do you think about, on a like-for-like basis, the products, how the gain on sale margin is trending in the third quarter versus the second?

Anthony Hsieh here. So, I'm going to answer the question assuming rates are going to stay relatively in the same zip code. And of course, as rates change, you're going to see a return in first mortgages more pronounced on the refinance side than on the resale or purchase side. But certainly, all that is directed by what happens to interest rates. The home equity market, Doug, has been a strategy since my return. It has taken some time to retool marketing, retool technology, and to retool our point of sale system as well as retraining of our sales staff. So over the course of the last 6 months, this is starting to prove some traction. And the momentum is finally here. We're feeling pretty good about it. The market is a new entrant for us. So we do expect the momentum to continue. We are starting to be very opportunistic by adding loan officers on the direct lending side. I think you might have seen we just announced a new opening of our Miami center, which will give greater coverage to the East Coast and that particular time zone. So understanding the competition in the home equity market is uniquely different, Doug, than refinance as well as purchase market. A traditional mortgage player, it is much more difficult for a traditional mortgage company to attack the home equity market because you're relying on your loan officers to generate the production for you, where in this case, the company generates the leads at the top of the funnel, utilizing our capacity and our ability to develop loan officers organically to fulfill the customer's demand. So over Q3, we expect home equity to continue. But your question of what is the ratio there, it really depends on the interest rate sort of movement. Because as rates do fall, you're going to see the return of first mortgages. But if it stays static, I think you can safely assume that we will continue to penetrate and grow our HELOC volume, which ultimately will slant the margins upward.

I appreciate that, Anthony. And then just a clarification on the MSR sale. I guess what is the size? The presentation says $12 billion. I think you mentioned $10 billion. And is there any way you can frame kind of the total dollars that you expect to receive from that sale?

So the sale was $10 billion. I'll double check what your reference was on the $12 billion. We did do a $12 million cost savings program, which was announced. But the overall sale of the portfolio was $10 billion.

So yes, slide 6 of your presentation has $12 billion.

We'll fix that.

Great. And any sense of the size, the amount of cash that you expect to receive from that?

It's Jeff DerGurahian. We'll just say that the trade executed well through our marks and we continue to evaluate opportunities in the market, as we stated before on other calls, and we decided to execute here because it made sense given all the factors considered.

Your next question comes from the line of Mihir Bhatia with Bank of America.