Quarter

Sportswear maker I. C. Isaacs & Co. Inc. reported a profit yesterday for the third quarter, but not large enough to help the company reach its goal of profitability for the year. I. C. Isaacs earned $1.4 million, or 18 cents per share, in the quarter, which ended Sept. 30. That compares with a loss of $500,000, or 8 cents per share, in the third quarter a year earlier. Net sales in the quarter jumped 28 percent to $31.9 million, compared with $24.9 million in the third quarter of 1999.

Baltimore-based Municipal Mortgage & Equity LLC, better known as MuniMae, reported yesterday a 16 percent jump in first-quarter operating income and boosted its dividend for the 17th straight quarter. "We're very pleased with our performance to date," said Mark Joseph, MuniMae's chairman and chief executive officer. The company also said that effective May 1, it will operate under the name MuniMae Midland LLC. MuniMae is a financial hybrid, combining features of real estate investment trusts, limited partnerships and tax-free bond funds.

The mutual fund that boasted one of the best runs in the fourth quarter - far outpacing the negative average return of peers - had almost one-third of its holdings in financial stocks. That may come as a surprise, given the global credit crisis that gripped many financial firms and sent domestic markets on a topsy-turvy course for the year. But T. Rowe Price Group Inc.'s Emerging Europe & Mediterranean Fund invests overseas in places that were largely sheltered from that turmoil, including some financial firms.

Provident Bankshares Corp. said yesterday that its profit declined 11.3 percent in the second quarter because of losses and charges totaling $3.4 million related to second-mortgage loans, most of which were bought from an out-of-state company. The Baltimore banking company made $8.04 million, or 30 cents per diluted share, in the quarter that ended June 30, compared with $9.06 million, or 32 cents per diluted share, in the corresponding period a year earlier. Provident also restated earnings for the first quarter and for all of 2000 in the wake of an internal review of its $1.6 billion second-mortgage loan portfolio.

New Jersey-based chemical company Millennium Chemicals reported a second-quarter net loss yesterday of $23 million, or 37 cents per share, citing economic weakness, the strength of the U.S. dollar and overcapacity in the industry. Results for the quarter ended June 30 compared with earnings of $48 million, or 75 cents per share, in the second quarter a year earlier. The most recent quarter included a $20 million after-tax charge, or 31 cents per share, related to Millennium's partial closing of a high-cost titanium dioxide plant at Hawkins Point and a 10 percent cut in its work force worldwide.

The Ryland Group Inc. reported yesterday that its third-quarter earnings rose 51 percent from a year ago to $6.7 million, on the strength of improved homebuilding gross profit margins and cuts in interest and corporate expenses.The Columbia-based company's 42 cents per share performance for the period ended Sept. 30, compared with 25 cents per share in the year-ago quarter, comes as Ryland has been struggling in recent quarters to compete in the mid-Atlantic region, where smaller homebuilders often trim profits to increase sales.

Baltimore's economy deteriorated further in the third quarter of last year, reversing a slight improvement the area showed in the second quarter.The city's misfortunes were widely shared, as 20 of 24 metropolitan areas included in the Grant Thornton Index showed economic declines from July through September 1991.The index is compiled each quarter by Grant Thornton, an accounting and consulting firm.The index for the Baltimore area fell 0.3 points, to 108.1, in the third quarter, while the cumulative average for all 24 cities in the study fell 0.5 points.

Legg Mason Inc. said yesterday that its just-completed third fiscal quarter was the second-most-profitable quarter in the company's history. The Baltimore brokerage and money-management company reported earning $41.3 million, up 17 percent from the $35.3 million reported for the third quarter of 1999. Diluted earnings per share were 61 cents, up 13 percent from 54 cents per diluted share posted for the 1999 quarter. "We couldn't expect much better performance from Legg Mason," said Michael Flanagan, a brokerage analyst at Financial Service Analytics Inc. in Philadelphia.

Corvis Corp., the Columbia-based maker of telecommunications equipment, significantly lowered financial forecasts for the year yesterday and said its losses widened even as revenue increased in the third quarter. And as the telecom industry continues to struggle, Corvis also said that layoffs are expected. But the company offered few details about the staff reductions. Chief Financial Officer Anne Stuart said during a conference call that revenue for 2001 is now expected to be about $200 million, down more than 36 percent from Corvis' previous forecasts of between $315 million and $325 million.

Sylvan Learning Systems Inc., the Baltimore-based education services company, said yesterday that revenue rose nearly 60 percent, even as it lost money during the first quarter because of its venture capital subsidiary. For the quarter ended March 31, Sylvan had a net loss from continuing operations of $11.6 million, or 31 cents per share, compared to earnings of $3.4 million, or 7 cents per share, for the same quarter of last year. The loss came mostly from Sylvan Ventures, a subsidiary formed last year to invest in technology-based education companies.