The ongoing saga involving Chimera Investment (CIM -0.48%) took a turn for the better today after announcing its most recent estimate of book value. However, a separate filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission shows that the high-yielding mortgage real estate investment trust is still on the ropes.
According to a press release it issued today, Chimera's book value continues its upward trajectory. As you can see in the chart below (scroll over the bars for the estimates of book value per share), its GAAP book value came in at $3.42 per share and its economic book value came in at $3.04 per share. On a year-over-year basis, that equates to growth rates of 15% and 7.8%, respectively.
The bad news is that it still hasn't filed its 2012 10-K and has now been put on notice by the New York Stock Exchange that it must do so within six months or face having its shares delisted from the exchange. For those of you who have followed this story over the last year, you know that this isn't the first time Chimera's been threatened with delisting. As I discussed here, the company's failure to file its 2011 10-K led it to seek three extensions from the NYSE over the past year for the very same reason.
What's an investor to make of this? The answer is both nothing and potentially everything. On the one hand, as Chimera's book value demonstrates, its fundamentals are improving. It's likely for this reason that billionaire Leon Cooperman recently purchased a total of 55 million shares of the company. But on the other hand, given the numerous problems with both it and its external manager Annaly Capital Management (NLY -0.32%) -- the ongoing accounting issue being only one of them -- one must wonder if this is a safe place to stash one's money, particularly as an income investor hoping to live off one's equity portfolio.
