Wwp, Sterling Post Higher Profits

New customers helped Washington Water Power Co. increase its first-quarter earnings compared with a year ago, according to results released Thursday.

The Spokane-based utility reported operating revenues of $197.9 million for the period ended March 31, compared with $191 million last year.

After deducting preferred stock dividends, net income for common stock was $26.2 million, up from $24.6 million a year ago.

Per-share results were 48 cents vs. 46 cents.

For the one-year period that ended March 31, revenues increased $59.3 million to $$677.8 million. Net income for common stock was $70.1 million, or $1.30 per share, compared with $65.1 million, or $1.25 per share.

Chairman Paul Redmond noted WWP reached a milestone in recent months. With 7.3 percent growth in natural gas customers and the addition of 10,000 electricity customers in North Idaho, the company now serves more than 500,000 residences and businesses in five Western states, he said.

The growth, along with weather that was colder than a year earlier, boosted retail revenues by $13 million for the quarter, but higher natural gas and interest costs and lower noncash earnings offset some of the gain.

Higher streamflows cut power costs while at the same time reducing revenues from sales to other utilities.

Non-utility earnings, much of it from the sale of stock in Itron Inc., were five cents for the quarter and 27 cents for the year, increases of two cents and four cents, respectively.

In other earnings reports:

Sterling Financial Corp. reported improved earnings for the quarter ended March 31.

Net income was $2.6 million, or 38 cents per share, compared with $2.1 million, or 45 cents per share, for the same period one year ago.

Per-share results were diluted by a issue of preferred stock last year.

For the first nine months of Sterling’s fiscal year, which ends June 30, net income was $7.5 million, compared with $6.2 million a year ago.

Sterling, the holding company for Sterling Savings Association, earned $1.14 per share vs. $1.34 for the same nine months a year ago.

Net interest income increased for both the three- and nine-month periods, and assets grew to $1.57 billion from $1.2 billion.

Deposits swelled to $879.7 million from $648.4 million, based in part on the addition of eight branches. The company now has 41 locations in Washington and the Portland area.

Loan production slipped for the quarter, from $158.3 million a year ago to $123.9 million this year, as residential lending subsided in the face of rising interest rates.

International Business Machines Corp. reported a first-quarter profit of $1.29 billion, nearly four times its year-ago earnings.

For the three months ended March 31, IBM’s profit amounted to $2.12 per share, exceeding analysts’ forecasts of $1.60.

A year ago, IBM earned $336 million, or 54 cents per share, excluding the government systems subsidiary that it sold during that period.

General Motors Corp. reported first-quarter earnings more than doubled to a record $2.2 billion.

The profit was more than twice GM’s earnings of $854 million for the January-March period a year ago. Earnings-per-share were $2.51 vs. 81 cents last year, when a $758 million charge for accounting changes reduced net profit.

Profits more than tripled for Starbucks Corp. in the second quarter as 57 new stores were opened.

Starbucks said net earnings rose to $5.1 million, or 14 cents a share, on net sales of $101.1 million in the three months ending April 2, compared with profits of $1.3 million, or four cents a share, on $61.1 million in sales for the same period in 1994.

Seafirst Corp. reported a 13.8 percent gain in profit in the first quarter.

Net income for the three months ending March 31 was $86.3 million, compared with $75.9 million in the same period last year.