(RTTNews) - Wednesday, home building and mortgage-finance company Ryland Group (RYL: News ), reported a narrower loss in third quarter compared to last year.

Ryland's third quarter net loss narrowed to $52.48 million from $65.71 million in the year-ago period. On a per share basis, net loss narrowed to $1.20 from $1.54 in the same quarter last year. Loss for the quarter included inventory and other valuation adjustements and write offs of $39.1 million or $0.89 per share.

Analysts expected the company to report a loss of $0.88 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimate typically exclude one-time items.

Total revenues for the quarter fell to $327.8 million from $543.84 million in the year-ago period. Analysts estimated revenues of $353.97 million for the quarter.

Homebuilding revenue declined to $315.8 million from $526.23 million. Average closing price of home decreased 6.3%, while the number of closings was down 34% to 1,323 units for the quarter. Financial services segment revenue was $12.07 million, down from $17.60 million in the year-ago period.

Homebuilding segment reported a pretax loss of $48.5 million, down from $72.4 million in the year-ago, mainly as a result of the lower inventory valuation adjustments and write-offs.
Total expenses for the quarter was down to $381.42 million from $624.52 million in the year-ago period.

For the nine months, net loss was $201.49 million or $4.65 per share compared with $336.67 million or $7.94 per share in the prior-year. Total revenues declined to $865.23 million from $1.45 billion last year.

RYL closed Wednesday's regular trading at $18.66, down $1.39 or 6.93% on a volume of 1.97 million shares. In the after hours, the stock further declined $0.09 or 0.48% to trade at $18.57.

To receive FREE breaking news email alerts for Ryland Group Inc. and others in your portfolio

by RTT Staff Writer

For comments and feedback: contact editorial@rttnews.com