Freddie Mac lost $7.8 billion in the final three months of last year, but the mortgage finance company didn’t need a federal cash infusion for the third quarter in a row.

Freddie Mac, which has been controlled by federal regulators since September 2008, lost $2.39 a share, the company said Wednesday. The loss included $1.3 billion in dividends paid to the Treasury Department, which has an almost 80 percent stake in the McLean, Va., company.

The results were a marked improvement over the fourth quarter 2008 when Freddie lost $23.9 billion, or $7.37 a share.

During the most recent quarter, Freddie suffered $7.1 billion in credit losses and a $3.4 billion write-down in low income tax credit investments. That move “increases the likelihood” that the company will require more cash from the Treasury Department, the company warned in a regulatory filing.

Freddie Mac and its sister company Fannie Mae play a vital role in the mortgage market by purchasing mortgages from lenders and selling them to investors. Freddie Mac, for example, purchased or guaranteed about one in four home loans made last year and helped almost 2 million borrowers refinance.

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