First quarter is a plus for some local firms.

The rest of the nation may be undergoing an on-again-off-again recovery, but you wouldn't know it from the first-quarter results in the greater San Fernando Valley.

While losses continued to mount at a number of local technology companies, most of the region's largest public companies saw sizable increases in revenues and earnings for the period. Sales rose an average of 15 percent and earnings more than tripled year-to-year for a sampling of 25 of the region's largest public companies.

The Valley's average performance for the quarter far eclipsed the S&P 500, which, when reporting for all companies is completed, is expected to show an 11.6-percent decline over the same period last year, the fifth consecutive quarter of negative earnings, according to Thomson Financial/First Call.

The best performers in the local economy were businesses related to home-buying, where sales have been white hot, but consumer goods companies, health care firms and entertainment also turned in strong quarterly financials. Those trends mirror the national economy, where analysts say low interest rates have affected not just home buying, but other areas of consumer goods as well.

"There's no question anything in home building and real estate has done really well," said Ken Perkins, research analyst with First Call. "Low levels of interest rates have really been a boon, and with refinancing, that has put money into consumer's pockets."

Among the brightest performers in the Valley:

* Earnings at Newhall Land and Farming Co. surged more than tenfold to $11.1 million and revenues more than doubled to $51.8 million.

* Mortgage banker Countrywide Credit Industries Inc. saw earnings jump 61 percent to $168 million on revenues of $915.4 million, up 65 percent from the comparable quarter in 2001.

* Video game maker THQ Inc. reported earnings increased 222 percent to $2.8 million on a sales increase of 34 percent to $79.7 million.

* Wellpoint Health Networks Inc. saw revenues increase 51 percent to $3.9 billion and earnings surge 46 percent to $141 million.

The staggering threefold rise in earnings registered in the Valley was in part due to exceedingly low net levels reported by some companies in the comparable period last year -- The Walt Disney Co., for instance, lost $567 million in the first quarter of 2001, compared to a positive earnings flow of $259 million in the current quarter, skewing the average considerably -- but many local firms nevertheless saw dramatic earnings gains, albeit often on much more modest revenue increases.

At The Ryland Group Inc., for example, earnings rose 61 percent to $26 million in the quarter on a 5-percent revenue increase. And Dole Food Company Inc. reported a 62-percent rise in net income to $563 million on flat sales.

Jack Kyser, chief economist at the Los Angeles Economic Development Corp., said a number of factors probably contributed to the upbeat first quarter in the Valley. The region is relatively free of the Fortune 500 companies that have been restating and revising their accounting as a result of the Enron debacle. And there was less M&A activity in the Valley, so companies were not taking the write-offs that strained earnings for many other businesses.

At the same time, the Valley's largest public companies include a number of sectors that have held up well in the downturn, including real estate, health care and consumer staples, a category that includes products and services ranging from computer games to entertainment and food and beverages.

On the strength of the first quarter, a number of companies boosted guidance for the coming quarter and the full year.

Bio-med firm Amgen raised projections for its product sales to the low 20-percent range for the year, over previous guidance that product sales would grow in the high teens. Amgen logged an 11.8-percent earnings increase in the first quarter of the year, seeing net income climb to $340.9 million on a 14-percent increase in revenues to $909 million.

Likewise, K-Swiss Inc., makers of athletic footwear, raised its guidance to earnings per share in the $0.39 to $0.49 range on a diluted basis and revenues of $61 million to $64 million in the second quarter.

Westlake Village-based K-Swiss's first-quarter net earnings increased 46.2 percent to $9.7 million and sales rose 17.7 percent to $80.3 million.

THQ, which beat analysts' projections for the first quarter of the year, also raised its guidance for the second quarter of 2002. Noting its sales successes with a number of games, THQ is projecting sales in the $80 million to $85 million range and earnings per share of $0.10 to $0.12 for the second quarter of 2002.

And Guitar Center Inc. said that, based on its first-quarter results, the company was raising its full-year estimates to $0.97 to $1.03 per share from previous guidance of $0.91 to $0.97.

Guitar Center turned in earnings of $3.4 million in the first quarter of the year and an 18-percent sales increase to $251.5 million for the first quarter of the year.

The improved outlook in the Valley is consistent with projections around the country. According to First Call, the ratio of companies giving negative guidance to those providing positive projections for the second quarter is one-to-one. Last year at this time it was 3-to-2.

"So it's a marked improvement from then and it's actually a sequential improvement from the fourth quarter," said Perkins.

Also typical of the larger economy, Valley technology companies continued to report earnings declines and, in some cases, losses. While the sector was perhaps the weakest performer nationally, many of the Valley's tech companies are privately held, and, if public, too small to appear in a top-25 list.

Still, tech companies were among the weakest performers in the Valley as well.

* Power-One Inc., a telecommunications equipment supplier, registered a net loss of $7.2 million, compared to earnings of $16.4 million in the prior year, as sales inched up to $48.4 million in the current quarter.

* Electro Rent Corp. recorded a 76-percent decline in first-quarter earnings to $1.8 million on a 37-percent sales slide to $32 million.

* Ixia, an optical equipment testing company, saw earnings decline 74 percent to $2.3 million on a 45-percent revenue drop to $15.4 million.

By and large, these companies noted that these results might have been even more severe if not for aggressive cost-cutting measures begun last year.

At Power-One, for instance, operating and other expenses were shaved to $23.9 million in the quarter, compared to $35.2 million for the same period last year.

And there is evidence that some of these companies are not out of the woods yet.

At 3D Systems Corp., where the first-quarter earnings boost to $8.5 million was helped by an arbitration settlement of $18.5 million during the period, more cost cutting is planned.

"We are not pleased with first-quarter results," said Brian K. Service, president and CEO of 3D, a Valencia company that makes imaging products.

The Arrow Points Up

Increase in first-quarter earnings over a year ago.

Newhall land & Farming  1,110%
THQ Inc.                  222%
Dole Food Co.              62%
Ryland Group Inc.          61%
Countrywide Credit         61%
Wellpoint Health           46%

Note: Table made from bar graph