Pall earnings fall year over year

Pall Corp., the Port Washington-based maker of purification and filtration equipment, reported lower quarterly earnings Tuesday after it booked large gains a year ago from selling a business.

Pall's earnings beat analysts' average estimate, according to data from Bloomberg. Shares of Pall rose $1.79 Tuesday to close at $83.49.

The company earned $71.5 million in its fiscal first quarter, compared with net income of $339.5 million a year earlier. The prior year's period included after-tax income of more than $250 million from discontinued operations, reflecting Pall's sale of its blood filtration unit for $550 million.

Earnings from continuing operations a year ago were $89.2 million. First quarter earnings per share from continuing operations were 63 cents versus 77 cents in the year-earlier period.

Pall's sales edged up to $629.8 million from $627.6 million a year ago.

For the quarter ended Oct. 31, 6 percent year-over-year sales growth in Pall's life sciences business to $319 million was tempered by a 5 percent decline in its industrial units to $311 million.

In a conference call, chief executive Larry Kingsley said the company did not anticipate strong organic growth during the quarter and said Pall remains "confident in our plan" for fiscal 2014.

Pall expects pro forma earnings of $3.30 to $3.50 a share in fiscal 2014.