Countrywide Earnings Soar on Home Refinancing Boom

Countrywide Credit Industries Inc., the largest independent mortgage lender, said fiscal second-quarter earnings rose 64% as a drop in interest rates spurred homeowners to refinance their loans.

Calabasas-based Countrywide also expects third-quarter earnings to exceed analysts’ estimates, the company said in a news release. Countrywide’s shares rose 7 cents to $41.77 Tuesday on the New York Stock Exchange.

Countrywide earned a company-record $149.2 million, or $1.20 a share, in the quarter ended Aug. 31, matching analysts’ estimates and up from $91 million, or 77 cents, a year earlier. Revenue rose 46% to $754.9 million from $516.8 million.

Average mortgage rates have decreased about 1 percentage point to 6.8% in the last year, according to Freddie Mac, as the Federal Reserve has cut interest rates to boost the economy. The Mortgage Bankers Assn. of America raised its forecast of lending this year by $200 billion to $1.7 trillion, which would be a record.

The number of loans Countrywide funded during the quarter more than doubled from a year earlier to $33.5 billion. The company is in the process of making $19.1 billion in loans, also a record.

For the third quarter, Countrywide said it expects to earn $1.20 a share to $1.25 a share, above the $1.14 estimate of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call.