Howard Widra: Yes, the — the buying back of shares is definitely a function of the things you said. Obviously, how levered we are and how much capital you have. But more importantly is comparing against alternative investments. And we bought back those share much earlier in the quarter at markedly lower prices than we are at today, and so — which changes the return on that buyback multiple hundreds of basis points. So, it does change that metric. So, we’re always looking at it. And so, obviously, if yields on assets or opportunities went down, that could change the appetite at this price because we still think that it’s a good value. But when there are these lending opportunities at this level based on where we’ve traded to now, that balance is different.
So, I think the answer is we will buyback shares when it is clearly accretive to the shareholders versus all other options, right; Paying dividends, making a different loan, delivering. And we felt that was the case at the level we were able to buy shares very early in this quarter.
Melissa Wedel: Thank you. That’s really helpful.
Operator: [Operator Instructions] Our next question comes from Paul Johnson, KBW.
Paul Johnson: Yes, good evening, guys. Thanks for taking my question. I guess just with everything that’s occurred in the first-half of this year, and based on what you’re seeing from sponsors’ behavior and appetite for deals today, do you think that we’ve reached or maybe we’re approaching an inflection point in terms just risk appetite from sponsors. And if that is the case, what do you guys expect for the remainder of the year, and maybe more so like 2024? Are you expecting a big year or just a slower recovery to normalization?
Tanner Powell: Yes, sure. Thanks, Paul. And let me make a quick comment before opining on your question. I think one of the parts of our story that we try to stress quite a bit is that we’re at $2.4 billion of a $30 billion business. And that affords us a nice strategic advantage in that, in any given quarter, there is plenty of volume. And as we called out in our prepared remarks, the broader MidCap, the Bethesda MidCap did $4.4 billion of originations in the given quarter. And that gives us a dynamic where we’re less sensitive to the ebbs and flows in deal volume. In terms of the inflection point, what we hear from sponsors in our discussions, and not continue to have the answer by any stretch of the imagination. But what we have seen, while there is some volatility, the dispersion from the — has been reduced.
And there is some modicum of stabilization. While things were — and that’s not to say that no one is discounting the potential for a higher rate, and at least being able to say that, “I’ve got something that’s unlikely to go up materially from here,” has enabled sponsors when they digest the implications to the next buyer’s ability to pay, particularly if it’s a sponsor buyout, that enables models to be able to be run with a greater degree of confidence and precision. And so, I that’s the impetus currently, as well as also some distance from the stresses that we saw earlier in the year, as well as some upside to economic trends. But it would be very premature to call the inflection point as data on the — on the frontlines it is changing, but certainly some modicum of reprieve there, and that’s what we’ve seen in the post quarter-end period with some modestly higher M&A volume and activity levels.