St. Paul, MN, July 19---3M today announced its second quarter 2004 sales and earnings results.
Net income for the quarter was $773 million, or $0.97 per share, versus $619 million, or $0.78 per share, in the second quarter of 2003. Second quarter net income increased nearly 25 percent, and per-share earnings increased more than 24 percent.
"Solid sales growth and continued operational efficiency produced another outstanding earnings result," said W. James McNerney, Jr., 3M chairman and CEO. "Our employees continued to drive growth through strong connections with customers, leveraging our corporate initiatives and diverse technology base while maintaining good cost discipline."
Worldwide sales in the second quarter totaled $5.01 billion, 9.5 percent higher than in the year-earlier quarter. Global sales volumes increased 7.7 percent, which is the fourth consecutive quarter of volume growth above 7 percent. Local-currency sales (which excludes the impact of currency translation on sales) increased 18.2 percent in Display and Graphics, 10.4 percent in Industrial, 4.8 percent in Electro and Communications, 4.3 percent in Transportation, 4.2 percent in Consumer and Office, 3.4 percent in Safety, Security and Protection Services, and .3 percent in Health Care. Currency effects increased sales by 2.8 percent while selling prices declined 1.0 percent.
Sales outside the United States totaled $3.04 billion, an increase of 14.4 percent versus the second quarter of last year. Volumes increased 10.9 percent, while selling prices declined 1.3 percent. Currency translation effects increased international sales by 4.8 percent. Local-currency sales increased 18.5 percent in Asia Pacific, 13.8 percent in the combined Latin America, Africa and Canada region and 0.5 percent in Europe.
In the United States, sales totaled $1.97 billion, up 2.7 percent from the same quarter of 2003. Volumes increased 3.1 percent, and selling prices declined by 0.4 percent.
"Our broad-based growth in the second quarter reflects the fundamental strength of the 3M business model. Organic growth remains our focus, enabled by the 3M Acceleration initiative and the market focused organization structure we established in 2003," McNerney said. "Although continued geopolitical uncertainty causes us to maintain a conservative economic outlook, we are confident in our ability to deliver solid results."
3M also increased its earnings outlook for 2004. The company now expects reported earnings will be within a range of $3.72 to $3.75 per share for the year, versus a previous expectation of $3.60 to $3.70 per share. 3M expects third-quarter earnings per share to match the company's record second quarter performance of .97 per share.
