Pall Corp.: Sales fall in 'cautious' climate

Sales slipped at Pall Corp., the Port Washington-based maker of water-filtration and purification systems, as foreign customers grew cautious, the company said Wednesday.

Earnings rose on a gain from the sale of assets in the company's blood-product line. Pall said it earned $339.5 million, or $2.92 a share, for the three months ended Oct. 31, its first fiscal quarter. The results were up from $69.5 million or 59 cents a share, a year earlier.

Sales of $627.6 million were down 3.6 percent.

"The first quarter proved to be challenging due to order cancellations and a reduction in customer volume commitment," Larry Kingsley, Pall president and CEO, said in a statement. "The emerging country markets are taking a more cautious approach to industrial capital commitment."

Pall said the biggest decrease in sales, 6.3 percent to $327.6 million, was in its industrial segment, which includes process technologies, aerospace and microelectronics. Sales of its life sciences segment fell six-tenths of a percent, to about $300 million.

Kingsley said, "We expect life sciences to continue to perform well, while industrial will have a difficult year."

Shares of Pall rose 2 cents, to $60.18, after hours. The company released its earnings after the close of regular trading.

Pall, founded six decades ago by David Pall, is among the world's largest manufacturers and distributors of filters, and is the fifth-largest public company on Long Island by revenue. It has roughly 11,000 employees globally, with an estimated 750 on Long Island.