Annaly Capital Management’s Q4 CY2025 Sales Exceed Expectations

January 28, 2026

Mortgage finance REIT Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) announced its fourth-quarter 2025 sales hit $921.8 million, marking a 74.8% increase from the previous year, and surpassed Wall Street’s earnings forecasts. The GAAP earnings per share stood at $1.40, exceeding analysts’ expectations by 66.7%.

Is it a good time to invest in Annaly Capital Management? You can find insights in our full research report.

Net interest income: $366.6 million, compared to the expected $484.4 million (-81.9% YoY, 24.3% below projections)
Net interest margin: 1.7%, slightly above the 1.6% expectation (13 basis points better)
Revenue: $921.8 million, surpassing analyst estimates of $729.8 million (74.8% YoY growth, 26.3% higher than anticipated)
Efficiency ratio: 5.6%
EPS (GAAP): $1.40, while analysts expected $0.84 (66.7% above)
Tangible book value per share: $20.21, slightly better than the expected $20.06 (5.7% YoY growth, 0.8% beat)
Market capitalization: $16.64 billion

Annaly Capital Management (NYSE:NLY) offers diversified capital management, primarily focusing on income generation through interest rate spreads. The company operates as a real estate investment trust, investing in various instruments like government mortgage-backed securities and residential mortgage loans since 1996.

Typically, banks earn revenue from two main avenues. The first is net interest income, which covers the interest from loans and securities minus what’s paid on deposits. The second is non-interest income, which comes from things like credit cards and transaction fees. However, Annaly Capital has faced challenges recently, with a 12.9% annual decline in sales and weakened demand over the last five years. This doesn’t paint a rosy picture.

Note: Outlier quarters have been omitted due to significant investment gains and losses that do not reflect the core fundamentals of the business.

At StockStory, we tend to focus on long-term growth, but sometimes a five-year historical view can mask recent shifts in interest rates, market returns, and industry trends. Annaly’s results indicate a persistent lack of demand, with revenue declining 46% annually over the past couple of years.

Note: Outlier quarters have been omitted due to significant investment gains and losses that do not reflect the core fundamentals of the business.

In this quarter, Annaly did show remarkable year-over-year revenue growth of 74.8%, totaling $921.8 million and beating Wall Street forecasts by 26.3%.

Over the last five years, net interest income has formed 69.8% of the total revenue for Annaly. This indicates that lending activities are crucial for the company’s financial health.

The market tends to favor the growth of net interest income over fee-based income, given the former’s more reliable quality and stability.

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Banks fundamentally operate as balance sheet entities that turn profits through lending. This is reflected in the valuations, which highlight the strength of the balance sheet and the compounding ability of book value.

This underscores the importance of tracking tangible book value per share (TBVPS), as it reflects a bank’s actual liquid assets available per share, also taking intangible assets into account, which can be ambiguous upon liquidation. EPS can be less reliable due to elements like mergers or flexible accounting. Thus, TBVPS provides a clearer sense of performance.

Over the past five years, Annaly’s TBVPS fell by 10.6% annually, yet recently it has shown signs of recovery, boasting 2% annual growth over the past two years, rising from $19.41 to $20.21 per share.

Consensus predictions suggest that Annaly’s TBVPS will stagnate around $20.33 in the coming year, which some might see as a lackluster outlook.

It’s encouraging that Annaly exceeded EPS expectations for the latest quarter, and its revenue surpassed analysts’ forecasts significantly. But net interest income saw a decline. Overall, the quarter seemed solid, with noteworthy areas of improvement. After earnings were posted, the stock price remained stable at $24.38.

Though Annaly reported solid earnings, one quarter alone isn’t sufficient to determine if the stock is a wise investment choice. When weighing this, factors like valuation and the quality of the business should definitely come into play. A comprehensive research report can further aid in that decision.