Montana Insurer Reports Record First-Quarter Earnings

Crop Growers Corp., a Montana-based insurance company whose Coeur d’Alene chairman stepped down in March amid a federal investigation, posted record earnings for the first quarter.

For the quarter ended March 31, Crop Growers reported a $7 million profit, or 84 cents a share, compared with $5.2 million, or 63 cents a share, for the same quarter last year.

First-quarter revenues were $67.6 million, up 35 percent from $50.2 million in the same quarter last year. Revenues from multiperil crop insurance premiums serviced by Crop Growers rose sharply last year after it acquired an additional insurance agency.

Great Falls-based Crop Growers said it has spent $500,000 related to a federal investigation of campaign contributions to former Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy. Crop Grower employees and family members gave $15,000 to the congressional campaign of Espy’s brother in 1993.

Crop Growers Chairman John Hemmingson, who oversaw the company’s downtown Coeur d’Alene office, and Executive Vice President Gary Black resigned in March.

In other earnings reports Tuesday:

Crown Resources Corp. lost $375,000, or 3 cents per share, on sales of $166,000 in its first quarter. That compares with a loss of $245,000, or 2 cents per share, on sales of $325,000 during the year-earlier quarter.

Company officials said the lower revenues in 1996 are primarily the result of lower royalty revenues from the Kendall mine in Montana.

General and administrative expenses in the first quarter were $437,000, compared with $419,000 in the first quarter of 1995. Working capital on March 31, 1996, amounted to $9.3 million, compared with $7.6 million at Dec. 31, 1995. Cash and cash equivalents on March 31, 1996, were $9.2 million.

In January, the Denver-based company sold 1,570,000 free-trading shares in Solitario Resources Corp., its majority owned subsidiary, receiving net proceeds of $2,566,000.

Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. earned $133,000, or 1 cent per share, on sales of $24.5 million during the first quarter. That compares with a loss of $3.175 million, or 20 cents per share, on sales of $20.3 million during the first quarter of 1995.

Company officials said the stronger results for the recent quarter were due largely to record gold and silver production, increased metals prices and a reduction of interest expenses.

Gold production for the first quarter rose to a quarterly record 45,201 ounces, compared with 36,571 in the first quarter of 1995.

The record production was due to additional ounces from the new Fachinal mine in southern Chile, and increased production at two other properties.

Average metals prices during the first quarter were $401.40 per ounce for gold and $5.57 per ounce for silver, compared with $379.36 for gold and $4.70 for silver during the first quarter of 1995.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said its earned $571 million, or 25 cents a share, on revenue of $23 billion in the three months ended April 30. A year earlier the company earned $553 million, or 24 cents per share, on revenue of $20.65 billion.

, DataTimes