Park Electrochemical reports profit gain despite drop in fourth-quarter sales

Park Electrochemical Corp., a Melville maker of printed circuit materials and aerospace composites, Wednesday posted a decline in year-over-year net sales for the fourth quarter, but turned a profit a year after noncash charges pushed it into the red.

The company reported that sales dropped 5 percent for the quarter ended March 1 to $36.2 million, but diluted earnings per share in the fourth quarter totaled 23 cents, compared with a loss of $2.88 in the year-earlier period.

Overall, net income climbed to $4.8 million, compared with a $60 million loss in the same quarter a year ago.

Shares of Park climbed almost 8 percent to close Wednesday at $23.23 on the New York Stock Exchange.

In the 2014 period, Park recorded a noncash charge of $64 million related to the accrual of U.S. income taxes on the earnings of the company's Singapore subsidiary and took a $1.2 million pretax charge connected to modification of employee stock options.

With manufacturing facilities in Singapore, France, Kansas, Arizona and California, Park competes in the integrated circuits industry dominated by Asian companies. The company also has entered the aerospace market, where General Electric has become a customer for Park's composite materials such as carbon fiber impregnated with resin. Those advanced materials are used instead of heavier metal parts for some GE engines used in Airbus jets.

By Ken Schachter

kenneth.schachter@newsday.comkschach

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.