UPDATE 1-Praxair profit drops 8 percent, beats Street

NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Industrial gas supplier Praxair Inc posted a 8 percent drop in third-quarter profit on Wednesday, although results beat Wall Street's expectations.

For the quarter, the company posted earnings of $325 million, or $1.04 per share, compared with $355 million, or $1.11, in the year-ago period.

Excluding tax benefits, Praxair posted profit of $1.02 per share. By that measure, analysts expected earnings of $1.00 per share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S estimates.

Revenue fell 20 percent to $2.288 billion, narrowly missing the $2.299 billion analysts had expected.

(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Derek Caney) Keywords: PRAXAIR/ ([e-mail]; [phone]; Reuters Messaging:[e-mail]) COPYRIGHT Copyright Thomson Reuters 2009. All rights reserved. The copying, republication or redistribution of Reuters News Content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters.