Alexander & Baldwin Inc. maintained a modest first-quarter profit, though it was down 27 percent from the same period last year largely because of reduced real estate sales.

The Honolulu-based company engaged in real estate, ocean transportation and agriculture reported earning $3.8 million, or 9 cents per diluted share, in the January-March period, compared with $5.2 million, or 12 cents a share, a year earlier.

Revenue totaled $405 million in the recent quarter, up from $373.3 million a year ago.

A&B, which released its earnings report Wednesday, anticipates a relatively stable performance this year, and is on track to split its ocean transportation subsidiary Matson Navigation Co. into a stand-alone company in the third quarter.

"Overall, the company remains financially strong, and our businesses are well positioned for growth," Stan Kuriyama, A&B president and CEO, said in a conference call with stock analysts.

Shares of A&B stock closed at $51.61 Wednesday before the earnings report was released. The price was down 73 cents from Tuesday, but remains near a 52-week high of $52.72 reached May 2.

In the first quarter, real estate generated most of the company’s operating profit — $11.6 million, which was down from $22.6 million in the year-ago quarter.

Rental income from A&B’s commercial property portfolio represented $10.7 million, or nearly all, of A&B’s real estate operating income. That was up from $10.6 million a year earlier.

Real estate sales chipped in $900,000 of operating profit, which was down from $12 million in last year’s first quarter.

Sales in the recent quarter included 79 acres of poor Maui farmland, a small office property in California and two leased fee parcels on Maui. About $1.6 million in expenses from A&B’s joint venture developing the Kukui‘ula master-planned golf resort community on Kauai dragged down operating income from real estate sales.

A&B said it expects improvements at Kukui‘ula later this year, and noted a $2.75 million sale of a cottage there in April. Also, the company anticipates starting construction on its planned 340-unit condominium high-rise in Kakaako called Waihonua in the third quarter. A&B launched sales efforts in December, and said Wednesday it has 192 sales contracts secured by deposits representing 10 percent of unit purchase prices.

"We feel very good about this project and its prospects," Chris Benjamin, president of A&B’s land division, said on the conference call.

In A&B’s ocean transportation division, first-quarter operating profit totaled $5.9 million, an improvement from an operating loss of $7.4 million a year earlier. The figures included negative impacts of $1.4 million and $8 million in the respective quarters from the scaling back of Matson service from China last year.

Matson benefited from a 94 percent increase in container volume to Guam largely because competitor Horizon Lines ceased service there late last year. A&B expects a new competitor in Guam will replace Horizon.

In Hawaii, Matson container volume slipped 4 percent in the first quarter, and automobile shipments declined 6 percent.

A&B said a growing local economy led by a tourism recovery is good, but container volume is driven more by the state’s construction industry, which has yet to rebound. The first-quarter volume decline reflected some large store openings last year that weren’t repeated this year and more direct shipments from Asia, while auto shipments were down primarily due to timing of rental fleet replacements, A&B said.

Operating profit in A&B’s agribusiness division, which includes Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co. on Maui, totaled $3.5 million in the quarter, up from $2.6 million a year earlier.

HC&S got a late start on its sugar harvest this year, resulting in a 72 percent decrease in production. But sugar sales were unchanged in the quarter. The increase in operating profit was largely due to lower expenses from Kauai Coffee Co., which A&B sold last year, land lease income and higher electricity production related to farming.