3M reported first-quarter earnings of $2.05 per share, an increase of 10.8% versus the first quarter of 2015. Sales declined 2.2% year-on-year to $7.4 billion. Organic local-currency sales declined 0.8% while acquisitions, net of divestitures, added 1.6% to sales. Foreign currency translation reduced sales by 3.0% year-on-year.

Operating income was $1.8 billion and operating income margins for the quarter were 24.1%, up 1.3 percentage points year-on-year. First-quarter net income was $1.3 billion and the company converted 74% of net income to free cash flow.

3M paid $672 million in cash dividends to shareholders and repurchased $1.2 billion of its own shares during the quarter.

Organic local-currency sales growth was 6.2% in Health Care, 2.8% in Consumer and 2.4% in Safety and Graphics, with declines of 1.9% in Industrial and 11.7% in Electronics and Energy. On a geographic basis, organic local-currency sales growth was 4.2% in Latin America/Canada, 1.7% in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and 0.3% in the U.S., with a decline of 5.6% in Asia Pacific.

“Our team continued to execute the 3M playbook and delivered another solid operational performance in the first quarter,” said Inge G. Thulin, 3M’s chairman, president and CEO. “We expanded 3M’s profitability, improved our cash flow generation, and increased margins over a full percentage point. At the same time, we continued to invest in the business – including opening a new, world-class laboratory in the United States – while returning cash to our shareholders.”

For full-year 2016, 3M maintained its forecast for earnings per share in the range of $8.10 to $8.45 with organic local-currency sales growth of 1% to 3%. 3M also continues to expect its tax rate to be in the range of 29.5% to 30.5% and free cash flow conversion in the range of 95% to 105%.