Countrywide Financial Corp. cheered investors last week by pledging a quick return to profitability, boosting the stock price that day 32%, the Wall Street Journal reports.

But some analysts warn that the nation’s largest home-mortgage lender by loan volume hasn’t gone far enough in marking down the value of mortgage securities it holds and may have trouble delivering on that profit vow.

In 4 p.m. New York Stock Exchange composite trading, Countrywide’s stock fell 47 cents, or 2.7%, to $16.83. The share price is down 60% so far this year, dropping its market value to just under $10 billion.

The Calabasas, Calif., company Friday reported a loss of $1.2 billion for the third quarter. The loss reflected write-downs in the value of loans and securities, higher provisions for credit losses and charges related to a plan to shed as many as 12,000 jobs, or 20% of its work force. Even so, executives, including Chief Executive Angelo Mozilo, accentuated the positive, maintaining the quarterly dividend at 15 cents a share and projecting profits in the current quarter and in 2008.

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