Alexander & Baldwin Inc. is looking once again at perhaps exiting the sugar business on Maui in what would mean the end of Hawaii’s last sugar cane plantation.

A&B, which explored a similar move several years ago when sugar production was a drain on profits, mentioned in a conference call with stock market analysts Thursday that a renewed effort is underway to either improve its financial return on sugar or find an alternative farm model that could include diversified crops.

The comments were made after A&B reported a modest gain in second-quarter profit stemming from strong real estate sales that were offset by a $4.7 million loss from sugar plantation subsidiary Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Co.

Overall, A&B’s net income rose 6.5 percent to $9.8 million in the three months ended June 30 from $9.2 million in the same period last year.

Revenue rose 4.8 percent to $154 million from $147 million.

Much of A&B’s profit came from selling an office complex in Texas, three residential properties on Oahu’s Kahala Avenue and five parcels on Maui. Those deals helped A&B operating profit from real estate sales surge 83 percent to $14.3 million in the quarter from $7.8 million a year earlier.

“We’re pleased to see continued solid performance from our real estate operations in the second quarter,” Stan Kuriyama, A&B chairman and CEO, said in a statement.

Kuriyama said the strong real estate sales included $24 million from three residential properties on Kahala that were among 30 properties on the mansion-lined street that A&B bought from Japanese billionaire Genshiro Kawamoto almost two years ago. A&B has nine left.

Other pieces of A&B’s real estate business that are doing well include commercial property leases that include much of Kailua’s business area, lot and home sales at the residential resort subdivision Kukui‘ula on Kauai and condominium sales at a tower called The Collection being built in Kakaako.

A&B said it has tentative sales for about 95 percent of Collection units, though sales there won’t affect A&B earnings until construction on the tower is finished and sales close in late 2016 or early 2017.

Outside of real estate, A&B’s rock quarry and road paving subsidiary Grace Pacific produced a smaller operating profit — $7 million compared with $8 million — in the year-over-year period as revenue slipped 11 percent to $57.4 million from $64.5 million. A&B said the reduction was primarily attributable to a lower price for asphalt sales due to the decline in oil prices, as well as lower paving activity due to project timing.

The sugar business, meanwhile, was a disappointment for A&B that has sparked an assessment of whether to stay in the business.

The $4.7 million operating loss in the quarter partly stemmed from A&B retrofitting a ship that delivers sugar to the mainland so it can also carry molasses, a byproduct of making sugar. The change, which significantly reduced sugar delivered for sale in the quarter, was made to cut A&B’s cost to ship molasses on another carrier that became necessary after former A&B subsidiary Matson Inc. quit transporting molasses after a 2013 spill at Honolulu Harbor.

Though sugar production in the second quarter was up from the same quarter last year, A&B officials said poor weather conditions this year have put production behind schedule and likely will lead to a full-year operating loss for HC&S that is bigger than its $11.8 million operating loss last year.

Chris Benjamin, A&B president and chief operating officer, said on the conference call that the company is actively exploring ways to improve sugar results while also looking at different farm models including diversified crops.

A change could affect 750 employees at HC&S, a company established in 1882 which today farms 36,000 acres in Central Maui.

Benjamin, who will become CEO on Jan. 1, noted that agriculture for A&B has historically been a highly variable business with strings of bad years and good years. “But we’re now in a tougher stretch,” he said on the call.

A&B previously flirted with shutting down HC&S in 2009 after the sugar operation racked up $45 million in losses between 2008 and 2009. At that time, A&B explored converting the plantation to a biofuel farm. But sugar farming endured as sugar prices rose and projections for better weather inspired expectations of higher crop yields that were realized and helped HC&S produce about $60 million in earnings for A&B from 2010 to 2013.

Benjamin said a decision, once again, will not be something made quickly. “As active as our efforts are both on the sugar and diversified farm fronts, this is a significant and complex undertaking and will take some time,” he said on the conference call.

Shares of A&B stock, which Kuriyama described as somewhat disappointing, closed Thursday at $37.30 on the New York Stock Exchange. A&B stock in the last 52 weeks has closed as high as $43.52 on April 6 and as low as $34.74 on Oct. 15.