3M, St. Paul, Minn., today reported fourth-quarter earnings of $1.62 per share, an increase of 14.9 percent versus the fourth quarter of 2012. Sales grew 2.4 percent year-on-year to $7.6 billion. Organic local-currency sales grew 3.4 percent, acquisitions added 0.7 percent to sales and currency impacts reduced sales by 1.7 percent year-on-year. Sales and per-share earnings were the highest of any fourth quarter in 3M’s history.
Operating income was $1.6 billion and operating income margins for the quarter were 20.9 percent. Fourth-quarter net income was $1.1 billion and the company converted 131 percent of net income to free cash flow.
3M paid $423 million in cash dividends to shareholders and repurchased $1.7 billion of its own shares during the quarter.
Organic local-currency sales growth was 5.8 percent in Industrial, 4.8 percent in safety and graphics, 3.6 percent in health care, 1.3 percent in consumer and 0.4 percent in electronics and energy. On a geographic basis, organic local-currency sales grew 4.5 percent in the U.S., 3.4 percent in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa), 3.3 percent in Asia Pacific and 2.2 percent in Latin America/Canada.
Full-year 2013 earnings were $6.72 per share, an increase of 6.3 percent. Sales increased 3.2 percent to $30.9 billion with organic local-currency growth of 3.4 percent. Acquisitions added 1.4 percent to sales and foreign currency reduced sales by 1.6 percent. The company converted 89 percent of net income to free cash flow for the year and generated 20.0 percent return on invested capital.
For the full year, 3M paid $1.7 billion in cash dividends to shareholders and repurchased $5.2 billion of its own shares.
“The fourth quarter concluded a very successful year for 3M,” said Inge G. Thulin, 3M chairman, president and chief executive officer. “We generated broad-based, profitable sales growth across the portfolio and per-share earnings rose nearly 15 percent in the quarter. Free cash flow conversion was 131 percent, which enabled us to continue investing in our businesses while also returning a record amount of cash to shareholders.”
Thulin continued, “3M employees around the world are bringing our vision and strategy to life and improving 3M’s relevance in the eyes of our customers. Three key levers – namely portfolio management, investing in innovation and business transformation – combined with more aggressive capital deployment, will drive enhanced value creation going forward.”
3M affirmed its 2014 full-year performance expectations. The company expects 2014 earnings to be in the range of $7.30 to $7.55 per share with organic local-currency sales growth of 3 to 6 percent. 3M also expects free cash flow conversion to be in the range of 90 to 100 percent.
Visit 3M’s website to view the full release.
