Sales grew 2.1 percent year on year to $8.1 billion.
Organic local currency sales declined 2.6 percent while acquisitions, net of divestitures, increased sales 5.1 percent.
Foreign currency translation reduced sales 0.4 percent year on year.
Total sales grew 25.4 percent in Health Care, were flat in Consumer, with declines of 4.8 percent in Safety and Industrial, and 6.2 percent in Transportation and Electronics.
Organic local-currency sales increased 0.2 percent in Consumer, with declines of 0.2 percent in Health Care, 2.8 percent in Safety and Industrial, and 5.9 percent in Transportation and Electronics.
On a geographic basis, total sales grew 7.4 percent in the U.S., 1.2 percent in Latin America/Canada, with declines of 1.7 percent in Asia Pacific and 2.0 percent in EMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa).
Organic local currency sales were flat in Latin America/Canada, with declines of 2.7 percent in both Asia Pacific and EMEA and 2.9 percent in the U.S.
Fourth quarter GAAP earnings were $1.66 per share, a decrease of 27 percent year on year.
This result includes the company’s previously mentioned pre tax restructuring charge of $134 million, or $0.20 per share, and a significant litigation-related pre tax charge of $214 million, or $0.29 per share.
Neither of these items was included in 3M’s prior earnings guidance.
Fourth-quarter 2018 GAAP earnings were $2.27 per share which included a net charge for tax adjustments of $0.04 per share related to both the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) and its first-quarter 2018 legal settlement, and a $0.02 per share net benefit from a divestiture gain, net of actions.
Excluding the impact of the significant litigation-related charges, fourth quarter 2019 adjusted earnings were $1.95 per share versus $2.31 per share in the fourth quarter 2018, adjusting for last year’s tax-related items, as referenced in the “Supplemental Financial Information Non-GAAP Measures†section.
Fourth-quarter operating income was $1.3 billion with operating margins of 16.3 percent.
These results include a combined negative operating income impact of $348 million, or a minus 4.3 percentage point operating margin impact, from the company’s restructuring and significant litigation related charges.
The company’s operating cash flow was $2.3 billion, contributing to conversion of 186 percent of net income to free cash flow, as referenced in the “Supplemental Financial Information Non-GAAP Measures†section.
3M paid $828 million in cash dividends to shareholders and repurchased $164 million of its own shares during the quarter. ■