Ocwen Financial (OCN) has been flirting with new highs since the beginning of this month, according to the HW 30 index, the first equity index to be developed around the housing economy.
At the beginning of August, the mega servicer’s stock jumped 7% in strong volume after the company reported that Q2 revenue soared 151%, easily moving ahead of Wall Street predictions. Profit was up 66%, which is still healthy, despite remaining below forecasts.
Earlier this month, Ocwen announced it feels position to benefit from rising home prices and improved U.S. employment numbers as it continues to lean heavily on the acquisition of mortgage servicing rights.
On Tuesday, Morningstar Credit Ratings assigned its ‘MOR CV2’ ranking to Ocwen Loan Servicing as a commercial vendor for REO asset management. The ranking forecast is Stable.
The ranking is reflective of Morningstar’s assessment of Ocwen’s operational infrastructure and portfolio administration capabilities, especially for its duties as a commercial asset manager for REO properties.
The assigned ‘MOR CV2’ ranking will replace the ‘MOR CS3’ ranking that was assigned to Ocwen as a commercial mortgage special servicer back in 2012.
"In the normal course of the GMAC bankruptcy, servicing of loans was transferred to Ocwen. Ocwen's subprime residential servicing operation is assessed at SQ2- and remains on review for downgrade, as we monitor the performance of Ocwen in servicing those mortgages," said William Fricke, senior credit officer at Moody's Investors Service.
