Newhall Land & Farming’s Profit in Quarter Rises 61%

Newhall Land & Farming Co. ended a lackluster 1991 with a strong fourth quarter, in which three land sales helped its quarterly profit jump 61% from a year earlier.

The Valencia-based land development and agricultural concern said net income in the quarter that ended Dec. 31 rose to $16.4 million from $10.2 million, while its revenue climbed to $63.9 million from $51.8 million.

Boosting the results were Newhall’s sale of 97 residential lots and a five-acre corporate parcel in Valencia, along with 3,000 acres of its Merced Ranch property.

The sales partly offset a deep slump in Newhall’s housing business in Valencia, which struggled last year along with Southern California’s overall real estate industry.

In 1991, Newhall’s residential house sales plunged 72%, to $31.1 million from $111.1 million in 1990, as the company nearly stopped building new houses. Newhall closed escrow on 136 houses last year, down from 540 houses in 1990.

Newhall’s overall profit tumbled 22% last year, to $30.1 million from $38.4 million in 1990, and its annual revenue fell 21%, to $152.2 million from $193.5 million.