Apollo posts $3M in first-quarter earnings

Apollo Commercial Real Estate Finance posted earnings of $3 million, or $0.28 per share, for the first quarter, the company announced yesterday. During the three-month period, Apollo originated three first mortgages worth a combined $86 million and purchased $223 million in legacy commercial mortgage-backed securities. The results represent an improvement for Apollo, which began operations Sept. 29, 2009, and lost $1.72 million in the first three months after its initial public offering. “In having deployed approximately 96 percent of our capital as of March 31, 2010, we have accumulated a portfolio that we believe supports the current annualized dividend yield of approximately 7.9 percent,” said Stuart Rothstein, Apollo’s CFO. The company’s board of directors also declared a dividend of $0.35 per share of common stock. TRD