Amwest Insurance Group’s 4th-Quarter Profit Falls 5%

Amwest Insurance Group Inc., a Woodland Hills-based underwriter of bail bonds, performance bonds and other surety instruments, said its fourth-quarter profit fell 5% from a year earlier, to $954,000 from $1 million.

The lower net income came on little change in Amwest’s net premiums earned--an industry measure of operating revenue--which slipped to $12.2 million in the quarter ended Dec. 31 from $12.5 million a year earlier.

Excluding Amwest’s investment gains in the latest quarter, the company posted income from its operations of $397,000, compared with an operating loss of $517,000 a year earlier.

For all of 1992, Amwest’s profit inched down to $3.4 million from $3.5 million, while its net premiums earned slipped to $48.3 million from $48.5 million.