Freddie Mac to pay Treasury $4.5B after profit doubles

NEW YORK (AP) - Freddie Mac said Thursday that it will pay the U.S. Treasury a dividend of $4.5 billion next month after its profit more than doubled in the last quarter.

The government-controlled mortgage company has paid the Treasury more than $101 billion in dividends since receiving $71.3 billion in bailouts from the government between 2008 and 2012.

Freddie Mac buys mortgages from lenders, packages them into bonds, guarantees them against default and sells them to investors. It does not make loans to homebuyers directly.

The McLean, Virginia, company reported net income of $4.85 billion in its fourth quarter, compared with $2.16 billion in the same period a year before.

For 2016, it reported net income of $7.82 billion, up from $6.38 billion in 2015.

Fannie Mae, another government-controlled mortgage company, will report its fourth-quarter results on Friday.