Amwest Reports 32% Rise in Profits in 1st Quarter

Amwest Insurance Group reported a 32% jump in first-quarter profit on a 9% gain in revenue.

The Woodland Hills company, which specializes in writing bail bonds and other surety bonds, said net income in the quarter ended March 31 climbed to $785,000, or 39 cents a share, from $594,000, or 30 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue rose to $5.69 million from $5.23 million.

Amwest also announced plans for the sale of an additional 650,000 shares of common stock, of which 550,000 would be sold by the company and 100,000 would be sold by stockholders.

The stock of Amwest, which has about 2 million common shares outstanding, closed Monday at $12.75 a share in American Stock Exchange composite trading. At that price, the secondary stock offering would raise about $8.3 million.