Finally had a chance to dig into the $RKT / $COOP combo. In short, I’m skeptical.
$RKT is paying almost 2x book for a mortgage servicer that originates the bulk of its volumes through correspondent relationships. This a premium multiple for vanilla servicing rights. Further, $COOP has a fairly limited relationship with the borrowers in its servicing portfolio, limiting upsell opps.
The deal is accretive to $RKT, primarily because Rocket’s mortgage origination biz is sucking wind in the current interest rate environment. Buying $COOP helps near term earnings power, but it also suggests that $RKT management doesn’t expect its core mortgage origination biz to rebound soon and/or it sees its stock as overvalued.
What do other investors think about $RKT? I used to be very sharp on these types of businesses (I was on the board of Bankrate for a decade), but I am currently a little rusty.