The Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp. said its first quarter earnings rose 11 percent from a year earlier on higher revenue from processing mortgages.
The corporation, known as Freddie Mac, earned $141 million, or 78 cents per share, compared with $127 million, or 70 cents per share, for the first three months of 1991. Earnings per share figures were restated to reflect a three-for-one split of its common stock.Earnings slipped about 3 percent when compared with the $146 million, or 81 cents per share, earned in the fourth quarter. The company attributed the slippage to prepayment of mortgages during a refinancing boom spurred by low interest rates.
Freddie Mac, chartered by Congress in 1970, is shareholder owned. It has helped finance roughly one in eight American homes. It purchases mortgages from primary lenders such as banks and mortgage companies. It earns fees by repackaging some into securities for resale to investors. It retains others in its portfolio.
Ronald Majewicz, senior vice president-controller, said the company's revenue base was $380 million in the first quarter, a $39 million increase from a year ago.
He attributed the gain to an increase in fees caused by a rising volume of mortgages converted into securities and to a drop in short-term interest rates paid to finance the company's portfolio of retained mortgages.