New Century Financial Corp.

The Irvine provider of mortgage loans posted third-quarter profit of $4.7 million, or 24 cents a share, a drop of 61% from the $11.9 million, or 62 cents a share, reported for the 1999 period. Revenue declined 9% to $57.2 million.

The company attributed the results to a decline in gains from selling loans and additions to loss reserves incurred as a result of changes in guidelines by secondary market investors. The company said it took a loss of $7.6 million on the sale of $16.2 million in delinquent loans. New Century said in August that rising interest rates would result in lower-than-expected earnings for the year.