MSC Industrial 3Q revenue up, earnings down

Melville-based MSC Industrial Direct Co. reported mixed results Wednesday for its fiscal third quarter.

Revenue at the distributor of industrial tools and supplies rose 2.3 percent from a year earlier to $743.9 million in the quarter ended June 3, on an improved manufacturing industry, the company said.

But the company said its net income fell 3.1 percent to $62.8 million.

Sales fell short of the $745.25 million consensus estimate of securities analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.

“The environment improved through the quarter as the manufacturing economy continued to firm with improving sales growth across all of our customer types,” said Erik Gershwind, MSC president and chief executive.

Rustom Jilla, MSC’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said most of the sales growth came from products with lower margins.

“Hence, our gross profit was slightly below our expectations,” he said. “However, offsetting this was our continued focus on expense control.”

MSC, one of the world’s largest distributors of industrial tools and supplies, derives about 70 percent of its sales from the North American manufacturing industry.

The company is co-headquartered in Davidson, North Carolina.

MSC’s stock closed at $74.78, down $12.26, or 14 percent, in New York Stock Exchange trading Wednesday.