COUNTRYWIDE CREDIT REPORTS EARNINGS RISE.Byline: Juliana Ratner Bloomberg News Countrywide coun·try·wide adv. & adj. Throughout a whole country; nationwide: launched a fundraising campaign countrywide; a countrywide search. Adj. 1. Credit Industries Inc., the largest independent home mortgage company, said fiscal first-quarter earnings rose 30 percent, as low interest rates prompted a boom in home buying. Countrywide said net income rose to $90.8 million, or 78 cents a diluted di·lute tr.v. di·lut·ed, di·lut·ing, di·lutes 1. To make thinner or less concentrated by adding a liquid such as water. 2. To lessen the force, strength, purity, or brilliance of, especially by admixture. share, from $70.0 million, or 64 cents, in the quarter ended May 31, in line with analysts' forecasts. Low interest rates and an expanding economy are boosting demand for homes and home mortgages. That's good news for Countrywide, which is ``the industry leader,'' said Thomas O'Donnell, an analyst at Salomon Smith Barney Smith Barney is a division of Citigroup Global Capital Markets Inc., a global, full-service financial firm, that provides brokerage, investment banking and asset management services to corporations, governments and individuals around the world. Inc. The Calabasas-based lender has ``taken a cyclical cyclical Of or relating to a variable, such as housing starts, car sales, or the price of a certain stock, that is subject to regular or irregular up-and-down movements. business and smoothed it out,'' by concentrating on making new loans and servicing old loans, said O'Donnell, who rates Countrywide ``outperform Outperform An analyst recommendation meaning a stock is expected to do slightly better than the market return. Notes: Exact definitions vary by brokerage, but in general this rating is better than neutral and worse than buy or strong buy. .'' Countrywide shares fell -1/4 to 50-3/8 in trading of 343,400 shares, less than the daily average in the past three months. Kripalani tapped Countrywide Credit Industries Inc. hired Ranjit Kripalani, former head of mortgage-backed securities Mortgage-backed securities (MSBs) Securities backed by a pool of mortgage loans. at Chase Securities Inc., to head its national fixed-income sales unit, a spokeswoman said. Kripalani left Chase in January, just weeks before the firm fired about one-third of its 50 mortgage traders. He will start work June 29 at Countrywide, the nation's largest independent mortgage lender. He will oversee sales of mortgage-backed securities, certificates of deposit, and other debt securities. - Bloomberg News |
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