First of Long Island Corp. net income dips

First of Long Island Corp. reported a small drop in net income Thursday because of a stock sale that boosted the year-earlier figure but said core earnings rose on a healthy increase in net interest income.

The Glen Head corporation that operates First National Bank of Long Island said net income fell by 7 percent to $4.7 million, or 53 cents a share, from $5 million, or 68 cents a share, in the same quarter last year because the base period included a $1.2-million gain from the sale of securities.

Core income for the year-earlier quarter was $4.3 million, so the net for the current- year quarter of $4.7 million represented a 9 percent increase.

The company said net interest income after loan-loss provisions for the quarter rose by almost 3 percent to $13.4 million.

For the first six months of the year, net income was $9.4 million, or $1.07 per share, down from $9.6 million, or $1.31 per share from a year earlier. Excluding the effects of last year's securities sales, income was up $783,000, or 9.1 percent. The earnings-per- share figure also includes the dilutive effect of the sale of $1.4 million shares of common stock in July of last year.

The company said other reasons for the decline in net earnings included the costs of opening five new branches and an increase in the provision for loan losses. Substantially offsetting that was an increase in net interest income of $1.2 million in the six-month period from a year earlier and a reduction in income tax expense of $738,000.