GT Advanced provided 3.4 million shares of common stock and agreed to pay an unspecified amount in the future, the Nashua, N.H.-based company said in a statement today.

Thermal Technology makes high-temperature thermal and vacuum systems that GT Advanced will use to make products including sapphire cover screens for touch-sensitive electronic devices.

In 2012, Thermal Technology reported that it had about 70 employees.

Alaska Airlines ticket counter at Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County Airport

Nearly 16,800 passengers flew Horizon that month. With 63,600 trips through April, ridership was up 2.1 percent versus the same period in 2012.

Horizon Air, a subsidiary of Alaska Air Group (NYSE: ALK) offers flights between Santa Rosa and the cities of Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles and San Diego.

Terms of the deal, completed about a week ago, were not disclosed except that Verihealth is now a wholly owned subsidiary of privately held Falck USA, based in Seattle, according to CEO Boo Heffner.

“We’d been in discussions with Verihealth for about the last year and we very specifically targeted them as a great company,” Mr. Heffner told the Business Journal. “We’re very selective in who it is we acquire.”

The acquisition of Verihealth represents the first foray into Northern California for Falck USA, which in just two years has become the third largest ambulance provider in the U.S. after a series of partnerships and acquisitions from Massachusetts to Washington, Mr. Heffner said.  

It’s also yet another sign of the consolidation taking place in the health care sector, spurred largely by the Affordable Care Act and the economic realities that are impacting companies — from physician groups to blood banks to ambulance companies — large and small.

“There’s a lot of interest beyond one company acquiring another,” said Mark Knight, a Santa Rosa-based health care consultant.  ”It does show consolidation in health care, not just in the traditional settings like hospitals and physicians groups, but you’re seeing it in ambulance companies and other providers.”

Verihealth was founded by Gary Tennyson in 2000 at 2190 South McDowell Blvd. as an ambulance and medical transport company, with a training institute for emergency medical technicians.  Combined with Falck Northern California’s new operation, Verihealth has a staff of 268 employees and a fleet of 40 ambulances, according to Mr. Tennyson, who said Falck approached him.

“I wasn’t looking to sell Verihealth,” Mr. Tennyson said. “But when we were approached by Falck and as I got to know the organization, and the quality individuals on the Falck team both in the U.S. and internationally, that truly care about our customers, it was obvious we would be a perfect fit.”

Mr. Tennyson will continue to head Verihealth and will become CEO of Falck’s Northern California region. Staffing levels won’t change and the name Verihealth will remain in Sonoma County, Mr. Heffner said.

“We don’t want to wipe out a reputation that a company has established through the name,” Mr. Heffner said. “We looked at a lot of different companies, and Verihealth is a very well-established company run by a very experienced team.”

He added, “All decisions are made at the local level.”

While Verihealth will retain its name, Falck USA views Petaluma as a key stepping stone in growing its presence in Northern California and the San Francisco Bay Area, Mr. Heffner said.  Petaluma will serve as Falck USA’s Northern California headquarters given its centralized location.

“We view them as a springboard, if you will, into larger markets in Northern California,” Mr. Heffner said. “You couldn’t put a better dot on the map of a central area. It’s within a stones’ throw of some big markets.”

Verihealth is the second ambulance company  in Sonoma County to be acquired within the past year, with REACH Air Medical Services being the first last December. Texas-based Air Medical Group Holdings, Inc. purchased the Santa Rosa-based air medical transport company for roughly $250 million.

Mr. Heffner said that while ambulance companies are distinct from other medical providers, the industry is nonetheless adapting to the post-health care reform world by striking collaborations and partnerships in an effort to become more efficient.

“We have to save money in today’s reimbursement environment,” he said, referring to payment changes in the Affordable Care Act that shift away from the fee-for-service model and more toward bundled payments that take into account health outcomes.  ”It’s real and it’s here. We all have to deal with it. The reimbursement structure has a lot to do with it.”

To that end, ambulance companies play a vital role in the delivery of health care, and Falck, started in Copenhagen more than 100 years ago, is in a good position to share its experiences with hospitals and other providers, Mr. Heffner said.

“Whether hospital or ambulance, we all have to work on patient outcome. We as the transporter are a key cog in that wheel in patient care,” he said. “Making sure people end up in the right facility and have the right type of transportation, you have to be efficient.

For example, trained paramedics can work closely with hospitals and physicians to utilize technology in determining the most appropriate facility to take a patient or whether they could be treated at home, all with the goal of lessening costly trips to emergency rooms.

“It’s a very important mode of transport — you are a continuum of care. There can’t be a drop-off in care. It has to be equal or better,” Mr. Heffner added.

The ambulance industry in general is well-positioned to help reduce health care spending by carefully thinking about what the necessary level of care is, particularly for non-emergency care.

“We have a multifaceted approach. When it’s more of an ongoing chronic situation, maybe there’s an alternative, such as making sure they are compliant with medications, and focusing on prevention rather than reactionary medicine,” Mr. Heffner said.

Falck USA is currently operating in 14 states and just north of 5,000 employees across the country. Internally, Falck operates in 37 countries and employs more than 16,000.

In Napa County, vintners and growers trade groups are concerned about a coalescing county climate action plan (countyofnapa.org/CAP) that includes specific numerical targets for greenhouse gas reduction.

The county Board of Supervisors sent the draft plan back for a rework in December after agricultural groups protested a number of elements, especially carbon offsets growers would have to buy because of certain viticultural operations. The board said it wanted offsetting measures to be done locally instead of completed elsewhere via a fee.

The revised draft plan came to the county Planning Commission in early May. But a recently released list of best management practices for ag companies hadn’t been reviewed in time for the meeting, so the matter was postponed.

One potentially problematic aspect of those BMPs is the inclusion of numerical targets for a number of elements, according to an official from a major ag trade group in the valley.

“The problem is a lot of local measures we do can’t be quantified because the science isn’t there,” she said, speaking anonymously because her organization hasn’t taken an official stance on the plan.

And the latest draft of the Napa County Climate Action Plan, in the works for several years, comes on the heels of an abandoned attempt earlier this year to create a special conditional waiver for viticultural operations in parts of Napa and southern Sonoma counties from stricter new Bay Area erosion-control requirements.

One of the key industry concerns with the conditional vineyard waiver program developed by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board was confidentiality of the five-year farming plans that would be filed as part of the program.

Other sticking points with the draft vineyard waiver were that it duplicated Napa County hillside planting restrictions and California Environmental Quality Act-dictated review of significant vineyard projects. The draft also didn’t distinguish vineyard land from the rest of a property and would cost growers an estimated $38 million to $60 million over 20 years, according to Bay Basin Plan figures submitted to the Bay water board in February by Napa County Farm Bureau, Napa Valley Grapegrowers, Napa Valley Vintners and Winegrowers of Napa County.

The Bay water board dropped the vineyard waiver plan and is working on accommodating vineyards under the general waste discharge requirements. WDRs specify how a business will operate so no to let pollutants — in this case, sediment — get into environmentally protected waterways.

Meanwhile in Sonoma County, whether large-scale solar energy arrays should be allowed on vineyard land is being considered.

The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors in early May considered a proposed renewable energy ordinance that would “prohibit” such systems in areas zoned “agriculture intensive” to produce no more than 125 percent of a property’s electrical needs.

There have been concerns raised about the loss of productive farmland to so-called solar farms.

The county’s three agricultural zones were created to protect farmland, Bob Anderson, executive director of United Winegrowers of Sonoma County, told the supervisors at the hearing.

His group and others want clarification on language in the proposed ordinance about what would be allowed and what wouldn’t. The supervisors tentatively plan to take it up again on Aug. 6.

A developing matter for trade groups in both counties is officials’ interest in monitoring usage of groundwater from private wells and in further limiting where wineries can be built, how many should be in the county and what wine-related operations are allowed on land under various protection methods such as California’s Williamson Act conservation easements or agricultural land trust requirements.

“A vineyard is an ag use, but a winery in a vineyard may not be a compatible use in the way local governments go through land-use issues,” said Buzz Hines, partner and former Environmental Law Department chairman of law firm Farella Braun & Martel.

The North Coast wine grape harvest of 2011 came in below expectation and left many North Coast wineries on the short side, especially as consumers began trading upscale once again. Some wineries turned to the market for wines in bulk to augment short supplies — but they found that the inventory available was limited and prices had jumped. They would have to pay dearly if they wanted to protect their market share.

The 2012 grape market followed suit: activity started early, tonnage available was limited and prices were strong.

The growing season of 2012 was extraordinary, as we have discussed in this column before. This time last year, wineries, growers and brokers were in the vineyards counting two clusters per shoot, which usually means an average sized crop. The market needed to see a large crop so prices remained high with numerous multiyear agreements signed. The North Coast experienced a near perfect growing season that increased the weight of the berries and surprised everyone with record or near record crops throughout the area. But wineries were thirsty enough to keep accepting overages and some continued buying on the spot market as long as they could find space in a tank or barrel – or the executive swimming pool.

So here we are at half-past spring in 2013. Frost danger is just about over. Both the bulk-wine and grape markets have been active, and tonnage available on the spot market is limited. Most vineyards are reporting two clusters per shoot, as seen last year at this time.

Are we caught in a Groundhog Day replay of last year? Well, no, we’re not. Here are two differences:

• There is about three times as much bulk wine available now as there was last year at this time. As the proprietary chart with this column shows, Turrentine Brokerage currently has almost 15 million gallons of wine listed for sale, compared with almost 5 million a year ago.
• Last year, people saw two clusters per shoot and expected an average crop. This year, people see two clusters per shoot and expect an above-average crop. But I don’t expect a repeat of the bounty of last year. We have not had as much rain and already have had some higher temperatures.

As always, the real challenge in the wine business is to separate short-term and long-term trends and to deal effectively with both, even if they move in opposite directions.

Short term, there is more supply in tanks and casegood storage after the large 2012 crop. The 2013 crop probably will produce fewer North Coast tons than that of 2012, but it will still probably be adequate to satisfy immediate needs.

Casegood sales are growing, however, and productive capacity in the North Coast is not. Ultimately, it is impossible to continue to grow sales without growing supply. This is likely to be the fundamental challenge of the next 10 years in the North Coast.

This year on Feb. 2, Punxsutawney Phil the groundhog came out of his lair and proclaimed an early spring. I’m not sure he was correct for Pennsylvania, but he was certainly accurate for those of us in the North Coast. The crop size of 2013 is now up to the very unpredictable lady we call Mother Nature.

We have a long ways to go, but I believe we need to look at the crop this year considerably differently than that of 2012. And we must not let short-term abundance blind us to long-term needs.

I’m neither a groundhog nor really a poet, but here’s how I would put it:

We advise not to surmise but open your eyes.
Every year’s a surprise but you win the prize
that goes to the wise by watching the size
and listening to the sales guys.

•••

Brian Clements is a partner and vice president of Novato-based Turrentine Brokerage (turrentinebrokerage.com).

Carlile Winery & Vineyards

For Mueller, the winery ended up being bigger than the family originally thought would be needed when it was built in 2001 and too out of the way for tasting room traffic, said Lori Mueller. They decided not to expand the brand.

“Staying this size allows us to make everything on our own and lends itself to consistency and quality,” Ms. Mueller said.

Conversely, production of Carlile needed to grow to maintain brand momentum, according to winemaker and co-owner Mike Officer.

“The waiting list was getting so long that we were concerned that people might be losing interest,” he said.

If production had remained in the 5,000- to 6,000-case range as it was in 2009-2010, then it would have taken eight to 10 years for those on the waiting list to get orders, Mr. Officer said. Production increased to 7,300 in 2011 and 9,300 cases of 25 wines made from the bumper 2012 crop.

Ninety percent of sales are to the mailing list, 5 percent is sold directly to California retailers, and the rest goes to five distributors. Carlile wines sell for $25 to $48 a barrel.

Starr Road Properties, LLC, led by Carlile owners Mike and Kendall Officer, purchased the Mueller winery at 6301 Starr Rd. from the Mueller family on April 16 for an undisclosed sum, according to public records.

The Robert Mueller brand and inventory is set to move to the Punchdown Cellars custom facility, and the Carlile brand is scheduled to go from Punchdown to Starr Road by this year’s harvest, according to the proprietors.

With the shift to its own winery, Carlile is installing 19 tanks, including 10 it already had, as well as a press and destemmer-crusher. Winemaker-viticulturist Jay Maddox will remain.

The Starr Road winery is allowed to produce up to 10,000 cases a year, but Mueller only makes 4,000. Punchdown allows a great amount of control over production, Ms. Mueller said. That’s part of the reason Carlile has been there for 15 years, Mr. Officer said.

Mueller is set to relocate its tasting room in June to a 1,000-square-foot location in Healdsburg. The Muellers built a large custom winery in Healdsburg in 1991 and started their own brand in 1994. The winery was producing 250,000 cases annually by the time they sold it to Silver Oak Cellars in 2001.

Three-quarters of Mueller brand sales are direct to consumers via the wine club and tasting room. Most of the rest is sold to California restaurants, and a little goes to distributors. Wine bottle retail prices range from $23 for sauvignon blanc to $48 for the best-selling Emily’s Cuvée.

***

Michelle Berger, Kathleen Inman and Mike Sai of Inman Family Wines

Windsor-based Inman Family Wines, maker of Russian River Valley pinot noir, chardonnay and pinot gris wines, hired Mike Sai as marketing director and promoted Michelle Berger to director of direct to consumer sales.

“I have run Inman Family Wines as a one-woman operation since founding the winery in 2002,” said winemaker and General Manager Kathleen Inman. “Today marks the next chapter in the winery’s history.”

Mr. Sai previously served as marketing manager for Benchmark Wine Group. Before making the jump to wine in 2009, Sai spent a decade in marketing in the footwear business.

Ms. Berger joined Inman in January 2012 as direct-to-consumer operations manager. Previously, she worked in direct sales for 10 years in various high-net-worth luxury product industries.

***

Spelletich Family Wine Company of Napa Valley is moving its operations into 16,180 square feet in the Napa Valley Commons business park in south Napa to fulfill its need for expansion. That’s more than twice the amount of space at its previous location.

“We now have a facility zoned for wine production and consumption, allowing us for the first time to have a tasting salon on site,” owner Kristen Spelletich said. “We are now much closer The Meritage Resort & Spa and to other wineries located at the Commons, many of whom are longtime friends.”

***

The second North Coast Wine Industry Expo (707-433-2557, wineindustryexpo.com) is still seven months away, but organizers say they are more than two-thirds toward the goal of tripling the number of registered vendors.

The goal is to have 320 booths for more than 300 exhibitors at this year’s event, set for Dec. 5 at Sonoma County Fairgrounds, according to George Christie, president of expo presenter Wine Industry Network.

The goal for attendees of the trade show and conference sessions this year is 4,000. A second building was added to accommodate the additional vendors, and the conference was moved closer to the trade show.

The first expo, last December, had more than 100 exhibitors and 2,000 attendees.

The conference is set to have four sessions — vineyard management, production, sales and marketing, and finance. Speakers will be announced in July.

Attendee registration is $20 a person for the trade show and $75 for each conference session, with discounts for multiple sessions.

The Business Journal is a media sponsor of the event.

•••

Send items for this column to jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or call 707-521-4256.

About 2,000 tickets were sold for the opening of the barrel auction at Raymond Vineyards on May 31 and about 800 the following day for the live auction and festivities at Meadowood Napa Valley resort.

“It’s a great sign for everyone,” said Linda Reiff, executive director of Napa Valley Vintners, a St. Helena-based trade group that organizes the auction. The ticket sellout in April was the earliest in the event’s history, she said.

A number of the largest local hotels have told the association they are booked up for the weekend.

“There is a direct correlation between money raised at the auction and the economy,” Ms. Reiff said.

Though a gauge of wine aficionado enthusiasm, the bidding isn’t a pricing benchmark, said vintner Garen Staglin, honorary auction chairman.

“It’s irrational generosity,” he said.

More than $7 million was donated to local health care, housing and children’s education from 2012 auction proceeds. That brings the giving total over 32 years to $110 million.

The vintners’ group earlier this month committed $3 million from last year’s proceeds and those of 2013–2014 to expanding preschool and English education. Nearly half the valley’s kindergarteners are new to the language, and by the third grade that shortfall is linked to significantly lower test performance, according to the organization.

Many of the group’s 450-plus members contribute auction lots of who’s-who wines as well as luxury trips and events, and fly in and fete bidders, media and visiting star chefs on Thursday and Friday nights.

The auction of 100 barrel lots gives a taste of coming vintages. The live auction will have 45 lots plus a special lot. An Internet-based E-Auction has 170 lots, and bidding opens May 26 at noon.

Auction donations don’t include the more than 500 volunteers from the community and local hospitality industry.

John Whiting, Irv Rothenberg, Steven Jenkins, Eric Aanes

NORTH BAY — While the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s record-breaking close above 15,000 was a highly watched milestone this month, wealth managers in the North Bay expressed caution. Those broader market gains are no doubt good for many investors, they said, but it is the ones with a long-term strategy who have stayed in the markets during the past few years of downturns that are reaping the greatest rewards.

“If you missed that window because you wanted to get out of the markets and get back in when things got better, you did permanent damage to your portfolio,” said John Whiting, a partner with Moss Adams Wealth Advisors, about the partial but steep recovery in the months following the market lows of 2008 and 2009. “If you were able to convince a client to trim their fixed income and put it into the equity part of their portfolio — think about that. It takes some serious fortitude as an investor.”

While wide market oscillations in the past few years have created an emotional ride for some investors, Mr. Whiting and other wealth managers said that the recent growth of the Dow and other indicators was something of a case study in the merits of a long-term investment strategy. Many have seen their portfolios recover and perform more strongly, but challenges remain to minimize risk and maximize returns at a time when large market swings appear to be the norm, they said.

It was on Sept. 9, 2008 that news of the growing mortgage and financial crisis helped fuel a widespread market decline that included the largest-ever, 778-point slide in the highly watched Dow in a single day. It was considered a high-profile example of the devastating blows that investors endured in the recession, part of a downward trend from the index’s 14,164 closing high in October 2007 to 6,594 on March 5, 2009.

While the shocks pressured some investors to flee the equity markets — and indeed, according to those wealth managers, some did — it also presented opportunities to buy equities at bargain prices and hope for growth in the coming months.

“If you’re one of the people who got out when things crashed, then got back in, you paid for all that risk up front and didn’t get the reward,” said Irv Rothenberg, principal at Buckingham Asset Management. “Over the long term, that’s where the expected premium comes from.”

The recent growth in equity markets has made investors more optimistic, but not all asset classes are growing at the same rate, wealth managers said. Low-risk securities like bonds are still delivering extremely meager returns, making some individuals question their inclusion as part of a diversified portfolio.

The hunger for greater returns is adding up to a larger appetite for risk for some investors, with some seeing blue chip stocks as an alternative to bonds and similar assets, said Steven Jenkins, senior vice president overseeing trust and investment management at Exchange Bank. While investors could get lucky in the short term with that approach, Mr. Jenkins and others expressed caution that the added risk could lead to lower returns in the long term.

“Right now, the savers have collectively developed this thoughts process of TIMA — There Is No Alternative,” Mr. Jenkins said. “Although the prevailing thought is that bonds are ‘bad,’ there is still a role for bonds in a portfolio.”

He added, “Historically, when conservative investors move into stocks, that’s an indication that they are nearing the top of their run.”

Mr. Jenkins and others noted that small-to-mid-cap stocks were outperforming blue chips in the current market, making it harder for individual investors to identify winning picks in their own portfolios.

Also, despite the recent upturn in U.S. markets and a boost in optimism, other economic indicators suggest that there might be some surprises yet to come, said Eric Aanes, president of Titus Wealth Management.

Mr. Aanes pointed towards the activity of the Federal Reserve, a stubborn unemployment rate, the challenges of the Euro-zone economies and a slowdown in China as signs that investors could see new turbulence in the future.

“The U.S. is the only market that seems to be flying high,” he said. “While it may feel like the waters are calm, they can get choppy fast.”

Yet in acknowledging the turbulence that investors have endured over the past few years, Mr. Aanes and others said that long-term outlooks remain positive.

“People were concerned that they were going to have to work longer. That’s starting to change,” Mr. Rothenberg said. “It’s not that all of our clients are wealthy — they have a plan, and they stuck with it.”

The report by the Irvine, Calif.-based firm shows the Santa Rosa-Petaluma Metropolitan Statistical Area as the 18^th most profitable market for those who buy, renovate and resell homes, part of a list of the 25 markets where the practice generated the highest rate of return in 2012.

Brian Burke

Yet Brian Burke, managing director of the Santa Rosa-based real estate private equity investment fund Praxis Capital, cautioned against labeling the area or any other as a hub for that activity.

“It’s very deal specific — it’s hard to generalize,” said Mr. Burke, whose company specializes in real estate investments that include flipping homes. “What that tells me is not that Santa Rosa is the best place to buy homes because you can buy at a deep discount. Houses in Santa Rosa have appreciated faster than homes in other areas.”

A “flipped” home in Santa Rosa generated an average gross profit of 19 percent, or $53,558, according to the report. There were an estimated 527 such sales over the year, with an average original purchase price for the home of $285,344. The number of single family homes involved in the practice had increased 47 percent from the year before.

The city was the least profitable of other Bay Area markets that made it to the list. Flipped homes in San Francisco and San Jose generated an average return of 23 percent.

The most profitable market on the list was Orlando, Fla., where a home purchased at an average price of $103,701 generated an average profit of 63 percent upon resale, according to RealtyTrac.

Climbing home prices have attracted an array of investors in the current market, with “flipping” being among those practices. RealtyTrac estimated the sales that involved a flip by counting transactions that occurred within six months or less of a previous sale of the same home. The firm looked at 600 metro areas for the report.

The practice has changed from the days when buyers could purchase a distressed property at a deep discount and sell at a profit after basic renovations, Mr. Burke said. While investors were able to put between $10,000 and $30,000 into a property for a profitable sale while the market was at its low, those activities now entail from $30,000 up to as much as $250,000, he said.

“Now the business has shifted to looking for properties that may need another bedroom, or even a full rebuild of a home,” he said. “It’s basically the homebuilding of this decade. It used to be you buy a property and build 20 homes on it — that was real estate development.”

Investors, which account for the majority of absentee buyers, purchased 24.2 percent of all homes across the Bay Area in April, according to San Diego-based real estate data tracker DataQuick. That number was up from 23.5 percent in April 2012, with investors paying a median of $362,000 across the Bay Area region.

With multiple private placement funds involving single-family homes, “flipped” homes and multifamily properties in Texas, Praxis has grown to $25 million under management in four years, Mr. Burke said. Those funds have generated an average 20 percent annualized return for investors, but it is the stability of the funds that has proven attractive in a volatile investment climate, he said.

Median home prices in Sonoma County were up 23.5 percent in April versus the same month in 2012, at $376,000, according to DataQuick. The number of sales, 611, was also up 15.3 percent, while the number of sales Bay Area-wide notched down 0.6 percent.

Median prices continued to climb outside of Sonoma County as well, with approximately half of that due to price appreciation and half due to a greater number of higher-priced homes in the sales mix, according to DataQuick. Distressed sales are also on the decline, accounting for 24 percent of sales versus 44 percent across the Bay Area one year ago.

In Marin County, a median price of $799,000 was 29.3 percent greater than one year ago, with 345 homes sales representing an 18.2 percent increase. Napa County saw an April median of $385,000, up 21.3 percent, and a 13.3 percent increase in homes sales, at 136. There were 1.3 percent more homes sold in Solano County, at 564, and the median price of $238,000 was up 36 percent from April 2012.

Bay Area-wide, median prices rose above $500,000 for the first time since almost five years. Prices first passed that threshold in May of 2004, and continued rising for four years before dropping below $500,000 in June 2008. Median prices for homes sold across the Bay Area reached a low of $290,000 in March 2009.

Bill Facendini

With fewer distressed properties in the mix, larger investors are now looking towards higher-end homes and income properties, said Bill Facendini, president of Terra Firm Global Partners. More of their investor clients are holding on to their current properties, particularly those that are generating rental income, he said.

Meanwhile, the period of flipping distressed properties has left a positive mark on many neighborhoods, he said.

“It has been good for communities. I’ve seen some communities that had started to slide, but then these people come in and refresh some of these distressed homes. People are having pride of ownership again,” he said.

Those earnings were equivalent to 20 cents per share, compared with 4 cents per a year before. Net income for the quarter was $1.1 million, up more than 350 percent. Total revenue of $5.9 million represented an annual increase of more than 250 percent.

After completing its acquisition of fund assets under FBR & Co. in October of last year, assets under management at Hennessy Advisors have increased by 258 percent and were $3.4 billion at the end of the quarter.

The investment management firm’s board of directors announced a quarterly dividend of 3-and-one-eigth cents per share, payable on June 17 to shareholders of record as of May 24. The company noted that its stock price at the close of trading on May 8, $6.43 per share, made for a 1.9 percent annualized yield.

***

Redwood Trust, Inc. (NYSE: RWT) announced net income of $61 million for the first quarter of 2013, equivalent to 69 cents per diluted share and up 45.2 percent versus earnings in the first three months of last year.

Calling those earnings its strongest in the post-recession economy, the real estate investment and lending firm credited its earnings on the resale of purchased residential and commercial loans for helping to fuel that increase.

The company noted several highlights for the quarter, including four residential loan securitizations totaling $2.2 billion. The company identified $3.1 billion in residential loans for purchase during the quarter, up from $2.1 billion identified in the prior quarter.

Net interest income for the first quarter was $35 million, up from $4 million in the prior quarter. Revenue from mortgage banking was $44 million, up from $24 million in the prior quarter. Revenue from real estate investment trust activity was $16 million, compared to $10 million in the first quarter of 2012.

Redwood Trust had total assets of $4.8 billion at the end of the quarter, up from $4.4 billion in the prior quarter and down from $5.4 one year prior. The company issued a 28 cent dividend to common shareholders for the quarter, compared to 25 cents in each quarter in the year prior.

…

Submit items for this column to Staff Writer Eric Gneckow at 707-521-4259 or eric.gneckow@busjrnl.com.