UWM Holdings Corporation Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Call - Dominant origination growth, strategic push to bring servicing in-house and close Two Harbors deal
Summary
UWM reported a strong 2025 with originations up sharply and industry-leading rankings intact, but the headline numbers mask several structural moves and one-time hits. Originations totaled $163.4 billion for the year, up 17% versus 2024, and Q4 originations were $49.6 billion, up 28% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDA topped $697 million for the year, while net income for 2025 was $244 million after a $435 million MSR write-down.
Management framed 2026 around two strategic inflection points, bringing servicing in-house and the pending Two Harbors acquisition, plus a partnership with Bilt and broader AI investments. These initiatives are presented as a closed-loop platform to boost broker-led growth, lift recapture rates, and lower unit economics. That case looks powerful, but investors should note the material MSR markdowns, year-over-year net income decline, the timing-driven liquidity swings, and management declining a live Q&A on the call.
Key Takeaways
- UWM delivered $163.4 billion of originations in 2025, up 17% versus 2024, and $49.6 billion in Q4, up 28% year-over-year.
- Company reported full-year net income of $244 million, down from $329 million in 2024, after a $435 million MSR write-down.
- Q4 net income was $164.5 million and included a $28.8 million MSR write-down; adjusted EBITDA for Q4 was $232.8 million and over $697 million for the full year.
- Total revenue in Q4 was $945 million, up from $843 million in Q3; full-year revenue was $3.2 billion, up from $2.7 billion in 2024.
- Gain margin in Q4 was 122 basis points, underscoring strong origination economics in the quarter.
- Servicing portfolio stood at approximately $241 billion UPB with a fair value of $4.1 billion; Q4 net servicing income was $186 million and full-year servicing income was $725 million, up from $637 million in 2024.
- Management is executing two strategic inflection points: bringing servicing in-house and the pending acquisition of Two Harbors, both positioned to enhance capital, liquidity, and retention capabilities.
- UWM highlighted a partnership with Bilt to drive earlier consumer acquisition, higher top-of-funnel volume for brokers, improved recapture, and personalization tools aimed at retention.
- Management claims AI and other investments will lower expenses and increase production, framing technology as a lever to improve unit economics going forward.
- Company reported total equity of $1.6 billion and total available liquidity of $1.8 billion at Q4 end; liquidity was higher in Q3 due to timing of a $1 billion unsecured bond issuance and liability management.
- Management did not take questions on the call, instead directing listeners to SEC filings for details, reducing real-time transparency for investors.
- CEO emphasized UWM remains #1 overall lender for the fourth consecutive year and #1 wholesale lender for the 11th consecutive year, positioning the firm as dominant in the broker channel.
- Despite strong revenue and origination growth, the sizable MSR write-downs and year-over-year net income decline are notable risks to watch as servicing is internalized.
- Management expects the Two Harbors deal to further enhance capital, liquidity, and leverage ratios once completed, but concrete timing and integration details were not provided on the call.
- Timing-driven liquidity swings tied to bond issuance and maturities are a reminder that funding and liability management remain active operational considerations.
Full Transcript
Tiffany, Conference Operator: Good morning. My name is Tiffany. I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the UWM Holdings Corporation Fourth Quarter 2025 and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute to prevent any background noise. Thank you. Blake Kolo, you may begin your conference.
Blake Kolo, Chief Business Officer and Head of Investor Relations, UWM Holdings Corporation: Good morning. This is Blake Kolo, Chief Business Officer and Head of Investor Relations. Thank you for joining us, and welcome to the fourth quarter and full year 2025 UWM Holdings Corporation earnings call. Before we start, I would like to remind everyone that this conference call includes forward-looking statements. For more information about factors that may cause actual results to differ materially from forward-looking statements, please refer to the earnings release that we issued this morning. Our commentary today will also include non-GAAP financial measures. For more information on our non-GAAP metrics and the reconciliation between the GAAP and non-GAAP metrics for the reported results, please refer to the earnings release issued earlier today, as well as our filings with the SEC. I will now turn the call over to Mat Ishbia, Chairman, President, and CEO of UWM Holdings Corporation and United Wholesale Mortgage.
Mat Ishbia, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, UWM Holdings Corporation / United Wholesale Mortgage: Thanks, Blake. Thank you everyone for joining. Appreciate you guys being here. 2025 was an amazing year at UWM. You know, reflecting the strength and consistency of our business model, we executed a high level and delivered industry-leading results throughout the year while still investing in the long term. It was our 4th consecutive year as the number 1 overall lender in America and our 11th consecutive year as the number 1 wholesale lender. This has never been done in the history of the mortgage industry, and we’re really proud of our success and our dominance across the industry in wholesale and overall. For the year, we delivered $163.4 billion of originations, which is up 17% from 2024, $244 million in net income, and that included a $435 million MSR write-down.
Our adjusted EBITDA was over $697 million. A phenomenal year across the board. Turning to the fourth quarter, we delivered an amazing quarter, $49.6 billion of originations, which is up 28% year-over-year. Our gain margin was 122 basis point, and our net income was $164.5 million, and that included a $28.8 million write-down of MSRs. You know, on top of that, adjusted EBITDA was $232.8 million. It was just really strong across the board. An amazing fourth quarter. Really proud of what we did, and now we’re going to continue to dominate going forward. Our process of bringing servicing in-house is on track, and our partnership with Bilt is going fantastic. We’re so excited about what’s going on right now.
We’re going to deliver the best consumer experience in the industry, just like we do on the mortgage side, on the lending side, we’re going to do on the servicing side, and also keep our brokers connected and engaged to their consumers’ lives going forward. We’re really excited about this. Bilt is going to allow our brokers to not only acquire consumers earlier and expand the volume at the top of our funnel for lead flow, but also keep the mortgage brokers top of mind through the whole process. Bilt and the UWM servicing process is off to an amazing start, and we’re really excited to give you more information about that as it goes forward. Now, the pending Two Harbors acquisition and process of bringing servicing in-house are strategic inflection points, not just operational improvements.
Together, these initiatives position us to expand our dominance, deliver high-quality leads to our brokers, increase the recapture rate while lowering cost per recaptured loan, and more data-driven personalization tools for our brokers. You can think about our servicing platform as both a growth and retention engine. We will continue to capitalize on where the market is going. More consumers are entering the broker channel, driven by rate shopping, optionality, speed, and a mortgage broker’s ability to guide them. Our 100% broker model at our scale is both unique and a tremendous advantage. We put our business in position in a more organic way to dominate than any of our competitors, and we’re excited about the growth going forward. Now I’m going to turn the call over to our CFO, Ramy Essady.
Ramy Essady, Chief Financial Officer, UWM Holdings Corporation: Thank you, Mat. Q4 was a strong quarter. We reported total revenue of $945 million in Q4, up from $843 million in Q3. Net income was $164.5 million in Q4, up from $12.1 million in Q3. We also continue to maintain our MSR portfolio with a UPB of approximately $241 billion, a fair value of $4.1 billion, and net servicing income of $186 million in Q4, up from $169 million in Q3. For the full year, we reported total revenue of $3.2 billion in 2025, up from $2.7 billion in 2024. Net income was $244 million, down from net income of $329 million in 2024.
We also delivered servicing income of $725 million in 2025, up from $637 million in 2024. As we’ve said consistently, supporting long-term growth means continuing to invest in our people, processes, and technology, and doing so in a disciplined way that strengthens our operating capacity. In 2025, we continued to focus on investing to be prepared for growth, as we’ve mentioned before. We remain firmly on strategy with our investments, including bringing servicing in-house, which positions us to capitalize on significant market opportunities as volumes continue to normalize and grow. From a capital and liquidity perspective, we remain well capitalized with total equity of $1.6 billion. We also continue to be in a strong liquidity position with total available liquidity of $1.8 billion at the end of Q4.
While our liquidity position was higher at the end of Q3, it was due to the timing of the $1 billion senior unsecured bond issuance in September and our proactive liability management with the use of proceeds prior to the mid-November bond maturity. Net available cash, our leverage ratios as of the end of Q4 remained relatively consistent with Q3. Going forward, we expect to continue to maintain our capital, liquidity, and leverage ratios within what we believe to be acceptable ranges. Upon completion of our acquisition of Two Harbors, we expect that our capital, liquidity, and leverage ratios will be further enhanced. In summary, Q4 and 2025 delivered strong performance, and we are excited for 2026, for bringing servicing in-house and completing the Two Harbors acquisition to further strengthen our business for long-term growth and success.
I will now turn things back over to our Chairman, President, and CEO, Mat Ishbia, for closing remarks.
Mat Ishbia, Chairman, President, and Chief Executive Officer, UWM Holdings Corporation / United Wholesale Mortgage: All right. Thanks, Ramy. I’ll close with a few quick points. We’re very optimistic on the mortgage and housing industry. You know, there’s a big tailwind behind all of us. A lot of it’s tied to the market, but the administration, HUD, FHFA, Treasury, all these leaders in the country and in our industry are trying to find a way to help affordability and lowering rates to help more consumers. UWM will be the clear beneficiaries of all these changes, and we’re excited about what’s going on now. We expect to stay number one in the growing market, excited about how our AI implementation can drive expenses lower while driving production much higher. The opportunity is there right now, and we’re seeing it happen. Our model is unique.
As the lowest cost in energy and with servicing in-house, the Bilt experience, and pending Two Harbors acquisition, we now have a closed-loop platform that will help position us to accelerate broker channel growth and drive consumer retention for us and the channel. Now, on these calls, I’ve always taken questions. We’ve gone through the process, and we believe, you know, our industry’s superior business model, that the short Q&A doesn’t necessarily do it justice, really make it, you know, to explain the complexity of our business. I’m not going to go through the question process today, but I do encourage you to read the SEC filings for more information about our business and strategy. UWM has had such a dominant 2025. We’re going to have an even more dominant 2026, and I’m really excited about it.
The year 2025 was about execution, discipline, investment, continued leadership. We’re well-positioned operationally, financially, strategically for 2026 and beyond, and we remain focused on the long-term focus of dominating this industry, taking care of our consumers, our team members, our brokers, our shareholders, and we’re going to do just that going forward. Thanks for the time today. Have a great day, and we’ll talk soon.
Tiffany, Conference Operator: This concludes today’s conference call. You may now disconnect.