Newhall Land Posts $9.5 Million Profit

Land sales helped Newhall Land & Farming Co. report a 21% increase in first-quarter profit even though its total revenue fell 25% from a year earlier.

In the quarter that ended March 31, Newhall’s net income rose to $9.54 million from $7.89 million a year earlier, and its revenue dropped to $27.9 million from $37.1 million.

Newhall is a real estate development and agricultural concern based in Valencia. Although the company’s housing business is soft because of the real estate slowdown, its profit rose because of two previously announced sales of farmland totaling 4,700 acres.

Newhall said it also detected “a pickup in home sales activity” in the first quarter, with 26 of its houses in escrow as of March 31, compared with 10 at the beginning of the quarter.