3M Posts Record Sales in Fourth Quarter, Full Year

Fourth-quarter earnings for 3M, St. Paul, Minn., rose 11.7 percent to $1.81 a share over the same time last year. Year-on-year sales grew 2 percent to $7.7 billion.

Operating income was $1.7 billion with margins for the quarter at 21.5 percent. Net income was $1.2 billion, of which the company converted 144 percent to free cash flow. 3M also paid $544 million in cash dividends to shareholders and repurchased $1.3 billion of its own shares during the quarter.