18 October 2004 – St Paul (MN): 3M’s Q3 results have come in below Wall Street estimates for the first time in more than seven quarters.
The company posted a net income of $775 million, or EPS of $0.97, against $663 million, or EPS of $0.83 in the same period in 2003. Net income and earnings per share rose by nearly 17 per cent, in part due to the weakness of the dollar.
The weaker-than expected results sent shares down by 3.6 per cent before the market opened.
But 3M chairman and CEO James McNerney remained buoyant, saying: "Broad-based growth among many of our businesses and continued productivity improvement generated another excellent earnings result."
