Telephonics helps parent Griffon's revenue rise
Shares of Telephonics Corp.'s Manhattan parent company, Griffon Corp., climbed more than 7 percent to $17.18 in afternoon trading Friday as the Long Island defense contractor helped propel a slight third quarter revenue increase that was blunted by the impact of foreign currency exchange. Credit: Steve Pfost
Shares of Telephonics Corp.'s Manhattan parent company, Griffon Corp., climbed more than 7.5 percent to $17.24 Friday, as the Long Island defense contractor helped propel a slight third quarter revenue increase that was blunted by the impact of foreign currency exchange.
Griffon's overall revenue totaled $511.7 million, a 1 percent increase over the year-earlier quarter. Excluding the impact of foreign currency, revenue increased 5 percent, the company said in releasing earnings after the end of regular trading Thursday. Griffon's other units make plastics and home-building products.
Farmingdale-based Telephonics, a maker of communications and surveillance systems and one of Long Island's largest defense contractors, reported revenue of $115.3 million, up 13 percent from the prior year's third quarter.
Griffon's net income fell to $10.9 million, or 23 cents per diluted share, from $14.5 million, or 29 cents per share, in the 2014 period as the company's taxes swung from a $1.6 million benefit a year ago to a $5.8 million payment in the 2015 quarter.
Griffon also authorized the repurchase of an additional $50 million of its common stock.
Griffon, then known as Instrument Systems, bought Telephonics in 1962, according to The New York Times.
Telephonics, with facilities in Huntington and Farmingdale, was founded in 1933 and employs about 1,200. In recent years the company has downsized. About 265 jobs were eliminated amid restructuring in 2012, 2013 and 2014 and the closing of a facility in Sweden.
Ken Schachter covers corporate news, including technology and aerospace, and other business topics for Newsday. He has also worked at The Miami Herald and The Jerusalem Post.
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