3M reported third-quarter 2016 earnings of $2.15 per share, an increase of 4.9% versus the third quarter of 2015. Sales were $7.7 billion, flat year-on-year in dollar terms. Organic local-currency sales decreased 0.8% while acquisitions, net of divestitures, added 0.3% to sales. Foreign currency translation increased sales by 0.5% year-on-year.
 
Operating income was $1.9 billion and operating income margins for the quarter were 24.7%, up 0.4 percentage points year-on-year. Third-quarter net income was $1.3 billion. The company’s operating cash flow was $1.9 billion, contributing to conversion of 117% of net income to free cash flow.
 
Organic local-currency sales growth was 2.9% in Consumer, 2.0% in Safety and Graphics, 1.5% in Health Care, with declines of 1.1% in Industrial and 8.1% in Electronics and Energy. On a geographic basis, organic local-currency sales growth was 1.2% in Latin America/Canada, with declines of 0.3% in the US, 1.0% in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) and 2.2% in Asia Pacific.
 
“Our third quarter was marked by increased earnings, robust cash flow and a strong, broad-based margin performance – with each of our business groups posting margins of 22% or greater,” said Inge G. Thulin, 3M’s chairman, president and CEO. “At the same time, we continued to execute on Business Transformation while taking several actions to strengthen and focus our portfolio. We were also pleased to celebrate our company’s 100th consecutive year of paying dividends, which we’ve increased for each of the last 58 years.”
 
For full-year 2016, 3M updated its forecast for earnings per share to be in the range of $8.15 to $8.20 versus a prior range of $8.15 to $8.30. The company now expects organic local-currency sales growth to be approximately flat versus a previous range of 0% to 1%.