St. Joe 1Q profit surges, mostly on rural land sales

St. Joe Co., a Florida real estate developer, said Tuesday its first-quarter earnings surged 63 percent as soaring rural land sales countered slumping sales of residential properties.

The company earned $32.1 million, or 40 cents per share, compared with $19.7 million, or 27 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter.

The current quarter includes impairment charges of 2 cents per share as a result of continuing declines in certain property sales and listing prices. The quarter also includes restructuring charges of less than a penny per share, compared with 3 cents per share in restructuring in the year-ago quarter.

Revenue rose 23 percent to $116.8 million from $95 million in the prior-year period.

Analysts were expecting a profit of 18 cents per share on revenue of $80.9 million, according to a poll by Thomson Financial.

The company said total residential sales plunged to $17.6 million from $37 million a year earlier. Rural land sales leaped to $91.1 million from $46.7 million in the first quarter of 2007.

"With the U.S. and Florida economies battling rising home foreclosures, a tightening of credit and a significant inventory of unsold homes, predicting when residential real estate markets will return to health remains difficult," said Chairman and Chief Executive Peter S. Rummell. "However, demand for rural land remains strong, and we are having success selling non-strategic rural land parcels to a wide variety of customers."

Shares fell 34 cents to $41.66 in midday trading.