Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) Your first question comes from Steve Delaney - JMP Securities.
Steve Delaney - JMP Securities
On the surface of the balance sheet, it looks like there are 5 million more shares outstanding and I was wondering if you could confirm that, are you continuing to use your continuous equity-offering program?
Lloyd McAdams
That is correct.
Steve Delaney - JMP Securities
Could you share with us specifically how many shares and the average price that you were able to sell those at?
Lloyd McAdams
I might be able to share it with you in a few minutes. Any series we sell through the agency sales agreement, we sell at prices above the book value at the time of the event. We do have investors who reinvest their dividends in our direct dividend reinvestment program, DRP plan and they reinvest on the dividend date. So if the stock is below book value they tend to get the below book value, but for the agency sales agreement program, we routinely sell the stock above book value on the day that we sell it.
Steve Delaney - JMP Securities
That answers my follow-up question and that was going to be, do you plan to continue to use that as long as the stock is trading at a reasonable price relative to book? Thank you. I think you answered that for me.
Lloyd McAdams
If it’s sufficiently above book value, the answer would be yes, only if we believe that we have attractive investment opportunities to produce an attractive return for investors.
Steve Delaney - JMP Securities
I think you’ve got that with today’s spreads. Then on the second side of that, the buyback, I know we’ve had some ugly days in the last 30 to 45 days in the market. There certainly were days where your stock and your peers were trading well below what we thought the book value was.
Just as you would look to sell shares when it’s favorable to book, would be reasonable for us to assume that your buy-back plan is there really for defensive purposes and that you likely wouldn’t use capital for that purpose unless the stock was trading at a material discount to book?
Lloyd McAdams
That is correct. The buy-back authorization came recently and the only practical measure that we have to address is sometimes when the stock is significantly well below book value, it’s therefore reasoned that it really isn’t wanted and then other times it’s below book value because there’s massive uncertainty in the market.
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