Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance (NASDAQ:REFI) Q4 2023 Earnings Call Record March 12, 2024
Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance Corp wasn't among the 30 most popular stocks among hedge funds at the end of the third quarter (see the details here).
Operator: Good afternoon, thank you for waiting, and welcome to the Chicago Atlantic Real Estate Finance conference call. [Operator Instructions]Please note that today's call is being recorded, so I would now like to turn the call over to your moderator, Tripp Sullivan. Please go ahead.
Trip Sullivan: Good morning and welcome to Chicago Atlantic Real Estate's financial conference call. On this call, we will discuss our fourth quarter 2023 financial results. Joining us on today's call are Chairman John Mazarakis, Co-Chief Executive Officer Tony Capel, Co-Chief Executive Officer Peter Sack and Chief Financial Officer Phil Silverman. Our financial results were announced this morning in an earnings press release, which, along with supplemental documents filed with the SEC, are available in the Investor Relations section of our website. A live audio webcast of this call will be available today. Those listening to the replay of this webcast should be advised that the statements made herein are made as of today, March 12, 2024, and will not be updated beyond this call.
A metropolitan city centre skyline dotted with commercial real estate properties.
Certain of the comments and statements we make during this call may be deemed to be forward-looking statements within the meaning of the securities laws. These include statements regarding the future performance of our portfolio, our pipeline of potential loans and other investments, future dividends and capital raising activities. All forward-looking statements represent Chicago Atlantic's judgment as of the date of this call and are subject to risks and uncertainties that may cause actual results to differ materially from our current expectations. Investors are urged to carefully review the various disclosures we have made, including the risks and other information disclosed in our filings with the SEC. We also discuss certain non-GAAP measures, such as distributable earnings and adjusted distributable earnings.
Definitions of these non-GAAP measures and reconciliations to their most comparable GAAP measures are included in our SEC filings. I will now turn the baton over to John Mazarakis. Please go ahead.
John Mazarakis: Thanks, Tripp. Good morning, everyone. I'm going to keep my prepared comments shorter than usual today to allow time for a more robust discussion during the Q&A. For us, this was a good quarter to close out an exceptional year. We carefully expanded our portfolio, improved credit quality, increased our portfolio weighted average yield, and delivered a sector-leading total return of approximately 22.3%. And our leverage was well below the sector average. The outlook for the industry and operators is gradually becoming more positive, as they benefit from improving sentiment and strong demand. I think we're all aware of what's happening at the federal level with regards to the HHS recommendation to reschedule cannabis.
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To read the rest of the Q&A session, click here.