Pall Corporation 1Q reveals 16pc sales rise
earnings which revealed earnings rose by 16 per cent, propelled by
growth in its industrial and biopharmaceuticals segments.
The US company are recovering off the back of a disappointing fourth quarter, which saw flat fiscal fourth-quarter earnings that missed analysts' expectations,
Sales increased 4 per cent to $431.2 million (€368 million) compared to $414.7 million last year while reported earnings were $25.1 million or 20 cents per share as compared to $21.7 million or 17 cents per share last year.
Pall attributed the impact of stock compensation and the adoption of SFAS No. 123R, "Share-Based Payment" for reduced earnings per share in the quarter by 2 cents.
The Life Science sector's sales increased by 2 per cent in the quarter while the operating profit margin declined to 15.1 per cent.
Pall said that they had took the action of transferring remaining corporate R&D into the business units with the lion's share going into Life Sciences.
BioPharmaceuticals sales in the quarter increased 5 per cent, which was attributed to strong growth in consumables.
Biopharmaceuticals has been held up as a segment likely to drive long-term growth at the company, given the high number of biological drugs coming through to market at present and in the future.
"In the quarter, we saw growth across all Industrial segments and in BioPharmaceuticals. Asia posted strong growth of 13 per cent, and in Europe we see signs of an improving economy," said Eric Krasnoff, Pall's Chairman and CEO.
"This reflects the effectiveness of our CoRe cost reduction programs and integration of our business structure. Gross margins were atypically low in the quarter due to nonrecurring costs," he added.
Within the company's Medical sector sales in its BioSciences submarket increased 8 per cent, with laboratory product sales up for the sixth consecutive quarter.
Pall however reported slighter lower sales in its Blood Filtration submarket, down 3 per cent.
European sales increased 3 per cent after being noticeably flat all of last year. Operating profit margins declined to 6.5 per cent, while operating profit dollars decreased 38.5 per cent to $12.9 million.
