Earnings Labs

3M Company (MMM)

Q4 2015 Earnings Call· Tue, Jan 26, 2016

$145.48

-0.20%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by. Welcome to the 3M Fourth Quarter Earnings Conference Call. During the presentation all participants will be in a listen-only mode. Afterwards, we'll conduct a question-and-answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded, Tuesday, January 26, 2016. I would now like to turn the call over to Matt Ginter, Treasurer and Vice President of Investor Relations at 3M.

Matthew Ginter - Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to our fourth quarter 2015 business review. Let me kick off today with a reminder of our upcoming 2016 investor events. On Tuesday, March 29, we will be hosting an Investor Day at our headquarters in St. Paul, including a welcome reception the evening before at our new R&D laboratory. Registration for the event will be sent out later this week. Also, our upcoming quarterly earnings calls are scheduled for April 26, July 26 and October 25. On the call today are Inge Thulin, 3M's Chairman, President and CEO; and Nick Gangestad, our Chief Financial Officer. Each will make some formal comments, and then we'll take your questions. As a reminder, today's earnings release and slide presentation are posted on our Investor Relations website at 3m.com. Please take a moment to read the forward-looking statement on slide two. During today's conference call, we will make certain predictive statements that reflect our current views about 3M's future performance and financial results. These statements are based on certain assumptions and expectations of future events that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Item 1A of our most recent Form 10-K lists some of the most important risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from our predictions. Now please turn to slide three, and I will hand off to Inge. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Matt. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. I will open my remarks with an overview of our fourth quarter, and later in the call, I will give you a recap of our full year performance. 3M finished 2015 with another quarter of disciplined execution in a challenging external environment. Across our enterprise we controlled the controllable while investing in our…

Operator

Operator

One moment while we compile the Q&A roster. And our first question comes from the line of Scott Davis with Barclays. Please proceed with your question.

Scott Reed Davis - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

Hi. Good morning, guys. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Good morning, Scott. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning.

Scott Reed Davis - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

It looks like you were pretty aggressive in restructuring in 4Q. Can you give us a sense of the payback, what kind of tailwind in 2016, and what impact on guidance I suppose? And then just how much of that restructuring do you think you have to continue to do in 2016, just given the relatively weak macro out there? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Scott, the restructuring that we announced in October, throughout the fourth quarter we executed that almost exactly as we laid out then. We're for the fourth quarter $114 million pre-tax charge. And from that we're expecting $130 million operating income benefit in 2016. We expect that benefit to be pretty evenly loaded across the four quarters of 2016. And in regards to need for others, based on the outlook we have for the business and for the rest of 2016, we never say never but we don't – we're not anticipating anything at this time.

Scott Reed Davis - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

Okay. That's really helpful. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: And, Scott, this is Inge.

Scott Reed Davis - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

Yes. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We just came off kickoff for the year under the theme of efficient growth. And I think it's important for us to say, that as Nick said, you never know what you need to take for action, but my view is now with a range 1% to 3% on the top line, even in the lower range of that we should be able to prepare our self for when the market turnaround and stat to grow again. So I would like to have an efficient model where we can deliver now but also be prepared as we see things start to turn around, hopefully later in the year, but for sure you'll go into the future a couple of years. So you're right. You never know if it's becoming tough or what you need to do. But I think with the action we took now, at least I feel that we are prepared to deliver what we are telling you. And also, equally important, be ready to go offensive as soon as we see it's coming.

Scott Reed Davis - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

Yeah, makes sense, Inge. Is part of the go offensive potential related to M&A? I mean, you still have plenty of balance sheet space. And I would assume, given what's going on in the public markets, that private market evaluations are coming down a bit. Would you entertain getting more aggressive with M&A in 2016 if we're in a soft spot that gets tougher? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Well, the primary strategy for us is organic local currency growth. But I think we are willing and open to do things like we did in 2015. We did a couple of good acquisitions in 2015 in order to build out our platforms both from a technology perspective, but also be more relevant in the market. So the answer to that is that the pipeline is good for our businesses and again it's coming back to the evaluation of the asset as we look upon them.

Scott Reed Davis - Barclays Capital, Inc.

Analyst

That's helpful. Okay. Good luck, guys. Thanks. I'll pass it on. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Okay. Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Steven Winoker of Bernstein. Please proceed with your question. Steven Eric Winoker - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Thanks. Good morning, guys. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Good morning, Steve. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Steve. Steven Eric Winoker - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: Could you talk about the destocking impact within that negative 2.3%? What are you seeing in the channels and sell in, sell out and how much of a factor was that this quarter? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: When we look upon the inventory, you can say that consumer-related businesses like Health Care and Consumer, they're on a level that is very good, right. And you see the growth there. I will say that if you look upon industrial-related businesses, there's maybe a couple of weeks, but not more than two, of excess inventory in the channels as we see it. And if you go to consumer electronics, it's a little bit higher. And we estimate that maybe to be like maybe closer to three weeks of excess inventory at this point in time in the channels. So let's say two plus in industrial-related business and Electronics and Energy, or consumer electronic. And we don't see any issues at all in the Health Care and Consumer businesses. Steven Eric Winoker - Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. LLC: So that means unless things get worse you'd expect that to be fully flushed out in the quarter we're in right now, Q1 or...? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: I think we have to be on careful on the industrial sized businesses and consumer electronic.…

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Deane Dray of RBC Capital Markets. Please proceed with your question.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

Hey, wanted to follow up on Scott's question regarding has any of the year-opening market volatility changed your plan to add incremental debt or any changes in your buyback strategy for 2016? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Deane, our strategy that we announced in December for incremental leverage and for gross share repurchases of – we announced that to be in the $4 billion to $6 billion range. Those remain unchanged for us. That's our plan, we think it continues to be the good and right plan for us for 2016.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

Thanks. And, Nick, maybe just walk through the – I know seasonally you have strong fourth quarter cash conversion. This seems even above that. Was that any working capital improvements? And then any comments on the hedging program, how has it played out? And with regard to expectations against this volatility? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: First, Deane, on the free cash flow conversion, you know there's seasonality. The first quarter of any year is typically our lowest free cash flow conversion, and the fourth quarter of the year is typically our highest free cash flow conversion. We saw that play out in 2015, and we'd expect that to play out in 2016. In particular what you're seeing in the fourth quarter, there's a couple things. One is working capital. We did a good job managing working capital throughout the fourth quarter. And in addition, the restructuring expenses of $114 million pre-tax, much of that did not yet result in a cash outflow. That cash outflow will come in the first half of 2016. So we're seeing a little bit of movement between 2015 and 2016 there. As far as hedging, Deane, we continue to manage our hedging strategy as I've described in the past that over the next 12 months we attempt to hedge approximately 50% of our economic exposure, and then in certain developed currencies we layer on additional hedges on a diminishing scale out into the second and third year. That's playing out as we planned. For the total 2015, we had a hedging benefit of $182 million, and if foreign exchange rates stay where they are today, that $182 million will become approximately $160 million for total 2016.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

It's $160 million to the good? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: $160 million hedge gain.

Deane Dray - RBC Capital Markets LLC

Analyst · your question.

Got it. Thank you very much. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Deane.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Julian Mitchell of Credit Suisse. Please proceed with your question. Julian Mitchell - Credit Suisse Securities (USA) LLC (Broker): Hi. Thank you. So price cost is another good margin tailwind in Q4. I just wondered how you were thinking right now about the overall $0.10 to $0.15 raw materials boost in the EPS bridge you gave six weeks ago? And when you gave that guidance, how much of that $0.10 to $0.15 was assumed to come in the first half of this year relative the second half? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yeah, Julian. We – yeah, the 200 basis points this quarter, I'll just make a little comment on that before I go on to the 2016. Of that 200 basis points, 110 basis points of that is coming from raw material commodity price benefits and another 90 basis points from increases in our selling prices. When we gave the guidance in December of $0.10 to $0.15 for raw material, we were basing that on the oil price assumption of $45 to $55 a barrel. We all know where oil is today, right around $30. A rough ballpark for us is a $10 movement in oil. It helps us for an entire year by $0.02 to $0.03. So our thinking right now is we're right about at the high end of that $0.10 to $0.15. And at the time we guided this, in December, we saw virtually all of that benefit coming in the first half of 2016. We still see it heavily weighted to the first half of 2016, but we can see some of that benefit if oil stays in this range coming into the second half as well. Julian Mitchell - Credit…

Operator

Operator

Okay. Our next question comes from the line of Shannon O'Callaghan of UBS. Please proceed with your question.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Good morning, guys Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Shannon. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Good morning, Shannon.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Hey. In the Health Care business, drug delivery was up this quarter. I mean that's I think been a drag for a while. Is that now turned around? And what's your view on that piece of the business for 2016. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: That business is very much project-based so it would go a little bit up and down but we will see slightly better growth rate in 2016 versus 2015. And, again, you – as you recall, this quarter you mentioned this quarter showed slight growth versus where have been in last three quarters in a tougher situation. So again based on what we see in the pipeline we are more positive on that piece of the business for 2016 versus what we were able to deliver in 2015. So your observation is correct. And I will say your assumption moving forward, we hope that you're correct on that as well.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay. Thanks. Then just on Europe, I mean, it's something I think last year, you were kind of expecting to improve through the year, maybe came a little lower than you thought originally. What's your updated view on what you're seeing there and your expectations for Europe anything getting incrementally more encouraging or less encouraging? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, Europe for long time have been a challenge relative to growth rate in the market, right? And we have taken action very much on the efficiency part and the productivity part. And as you saw when you added it together now there was a growth of Europe, Middle East, Africa but the three pieces is that Middle East/Africa down, Central Europe up 8% and slight up in West Europe. So West Europe, we have slight growth and I think that would be very dependent on how Germany can come off in 2016. And we have also to think about it that Central East Europe, that growth rate was very much price that came out from our action we took in Russia. So Central East Europe, Middle East/Africa take that portion of it, generally speaking it's a challenging environment geopolitically that we then have to be careful of. And West Europe you see some spots of growth but I think very important thing there is that Germany, the machine of Germany has started to deliver a little bit more growth. And we maybe can see a little bit more there. I think we are well prepared in that part of the world due to work that we have done for the last, I would say maybe the last five years of streamlined organization taking out structure, bigger span of control and lower levels in organization, et cetera, in terms of management. Still, kept focus on our execution around commercialization as we have so many different languages as you know over there. So you need be very nimble and fast in execution in each country and then that will reduce management structures as much as you can.

Shannon O'Callaghan - UBS Securities LLC

Analyst

Okay, great. Thanks. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Jeffrey Sprague of Vertical Research Partners. Please proceed with your question.

Jeff T. Sprague - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · your question.

Thank you. Good morning, everyone. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Jeff. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Good morning, Jeff.

Jeff T. Sprague - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · your question.

Good morning. I was wondering if you could come back to price. And, Inge, you mentioned that – what percent of your price is kind of actions that are countering FX kind of like you mentioned in Russia I'm sure versus like-for-like price? And maybe speak to the ability to get like-to-like price in this environment? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Jeff, I can speak on this both for the quarter and the year. It's a similar story. About 75% of our total reported price growth is in direct or indirect response to FX movements, primarily in developing markets. So if you look at our 120 basis points, about three quarters of that directly a result of FX movement. Our core ability to impact price excluding FX has ranged in the 30 basis points to 50 basis points. And we continue to see that range going forward for the company, that into 2016. The delta on top of that is – will be dependent on what happens with FX movements. But 30 basis point to 50 basis point of core, and then whatever on top of that, that may happen if FX rates move even more than what we laid out in December.

Jeff T. Sprague - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · your question.

Great. And we should assume that the write off you took is equivalent to that 2.4 points of margin pressure in E&E? Is that correct? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yep, Jeff. That's exactly correct.

Jeff T. Sprague - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · your question.

Okay. And then just finally, could you just speak to the actual kind of direct/indirect oil and gas exposures that you do have in Industrial and S&S (48:44)? And how you see that playing into the early part of the year especially? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Okay. So, Jeff, to be clear you said in Industrial and Safety and Graphics?

Jeff T. Sprague - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · your question.

Yeah, I'm thinking within safety kind of fall prevention and protection gear and things like that? And then obviously in Industrial you've got some. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yeah, some of our direct exposure is what we're selling through the personal safety line. And what I'll say to that is as 2015 progressed, we probably didn't see a lot of impact in the first quarter, and then that grew for us in 2015 in the second through fourth quarter. We continued – we expect that to continue into the first quarter of 2016. And there will still be some negative impact after that from oil and gas, but we think the worst of the comps will be behind us from oil and gas after the first quarter and then diminishing the rest of the year. Probably a similar comment for the Industrial portion. We have some of our advanced materials that are impacted by – that go into the oil and gas industry. And then we also have some exposure in our Electronics and Energy business, and the comps for that we think for the first quarter for sure, and possibly in the second quarter we'll still be seeing some challenge there. Jeff.

Matthew Ginter - Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Jeff, to put a number on it at a total company level, if you took the businesses directly linked to oil and gas, it would be about 3% of our sales. Just as with the economy, any knock-on effects of a slower oil and gas market clearly are impacting the economy, but the direct exposure to oil and gas would be about 3% for us.

Jeff T. Sprague - Vertical Research Partners LLC

Analyst · your question.

Great. Thank you for that color. Appreciate it.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Nigel Coe of Morgan Stanley. Please proceed with your question. Nigel Coe - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Good morning. Hi. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Nigel. Nigel Coe - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: I just wanted to go back to Nick's comments on price, 30 bps of core price plus whatever the FX movements are. But obviously you don't have price baked into your 2016 bridge specifically. But I'm assuming that's part of your organics? I'm just wondering, do you have what, right now, 50 bps of price within your organic bridge? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Nigel, in our guidance the way we said it we expect 1% to 3% organic the vast majority of that volume. So 30 basis points to 50 basis points of price in that 1% to 3% total organic growth. Nigel Coe - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. That's helpful. And then I wanted to clarify the impact of acquisitions and disposals on Safety and Graphics. Obviously a strong margin performance there. But is the benefit from disposals because the Library Systems business was so much lower margin? Or is there a small gain there? Or is it both of those factors? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Nigel, we divested of two businesses in Safety and Graphics in the fourth quarter, our library systems as well as a license plate converting business in France. The net impact of those two resulted in a small gain, accretive to our earnings per share of approximately $0.015 cents. The rest of the total impact of M&A on Safety and Graphics is our acquisition of Capital Safety doing a little better than what we had been projecting. Nigel Coe - Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC: Okay. That's very helpful. Thank you very much. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Steve Tusa of JPMorgan. Please proceed with your question.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Hey, good morning. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Hi, Steve.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Just looking at the bridge on slide six, I think, for basically just trying kind of to understand the seasonality and kind of sequencing. Using those buckets, probably not a ton of change in tax and foreign exchange, those are probably pretty straightforward. What is the M&A contribution for first quarter year-over-year that you guys expect? I know there was some noise in numbers, obviously, with charges and stuff. But what is the M&A contribution in the first quarter year-over-year? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Steve, for the total year we guided approximately $0.10 benefit. Our view is that that will be quite evenly distributed over the four quarters. So for the first quarter, roughly one-quarter of that $0.10 benefit. And that's inclusive of the impact of the most recent portfolio action that we announced a few days ago with the small business in our Industrial business. So...

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Okay. Got it. Makes sense. So I guess when I kind of add all these items up, and I'm not really asking for a precise guidance here, but you guys are calling for a 7% to 12% EPS growth over the course of the year. Is that, is every quarter kind of within that range? Or with the little bit lighter organic, is that enough to get you below the low end of that range for the first quarter year-over-year? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Steve... Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: You're trying to get us to give quarterly guidance, right? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yeah, I...

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Well, I think it's good to calibrate this stuff with the sequencing of what's happening in the year organically. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Steve, we've talked about the organic growth that we're expecting in the first quarter. That is a quarter that I would expect will be more challenged also from an earnings per share growth. Everything else being equal, there's not one outlier that will compensate for the, what we've already said about the organic growth in the first quarter.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Right. Okay. That's kind of what I was getting at. Great. And then one last question just on the balance sheet. I know in prior years you guys have kind of toggled up the repurchase in some instances. I mean, are you, given that you're at the end of your most recent kind of five-year plan, should we think about buybacks as pretty much set? Or could you kind of toggle that up like you've done in past years from your standing 2016 guide at some point? What's the appetite there? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yeah, our appetite is pretty well-reflected by the $4 billion to $6 billion guidance that we stated. I will reiterate, our approach is there's a certain amount where we're in the market every day of buying. And then there's a portion that we are flexing up and down, depending on the relative value we see of 3M stock. And we continue to follow that playbook in how we repurchase our shares in 2016.

Charles Stephen Tusa - JPMorgan Securities LLC

Analyst · your question.

Great. Thanks a lot. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you, Steve.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Andrew Obin of Bank of America Merrill Lynch. Please proceed with your question.

Andrew Burris Obin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · your question.

Good morning, guys. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Hi, Andrew.

Andrew Burris Obin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · your question.

Hey. Just a question on Electronics and Energy. How much visibility forward do you have on this whole smartphone situation because it's one of the concerns we've been hearing from investors, that being a disproportionate hit on your business? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: We have – as you know, we work on those platforms daily with our customers. So I think that when we have laid out our plan for the year, we have good understanding relative to when new introductions will come and our position on them. And we have a good position, as you know. We got to hit now, of course, not because of that we were spec-ed out or lost anything, just because the market was down. And this is estimated to be down in Q1 as well, as you have seen in media. And I think we will see an uptick coming in the second half of the year. Hopefully we have orders coming in, I would say, in terms of in end of second quarter is when we will start to see orders coming in to us for launch later in the year.

Andrew Burris Obin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · your question.

And can you help to frame the risk from technological disruption? Also been getting questions on transition to OLEDs and how that impacts the business, because I think people remember what happened a decade ago with flat screen TVs and try to draw a parallel here? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, well we are aware of competition in terms of technologies to LCD such as OLED, which is the one you refer to. And we have known that for a long time. That's also one of the reasons why we realigned our organization to form our display materials and system business in early 2014. And there's an integration of those businesses into what I would call display technologies, which is a goal for the future for us to expand into. And we have already products that is going into equipment that are using OLEDs. So we are not behind in any way. We have on every, I would say, every equipment today that are using OLED, we have multiple applications in them. And there's more to come in that area. But we have been working on this area for quite some time. And that's part of our model. That's why I would say the strengths of 3M through our technology platforms, this is exactly where it is, right. So I see more opportunities as you go ahead over the longer term as we are working with our customers on it.

Andrew Burris Obin - Bank of America Merrill Lynch

Analyst · your question.

Thank you very much. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Andy Kaplowitz of Citi. Please proceed with your questions.

Andrew Kaplowitz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your questions.

Hey. Good morning, guys. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning. Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Good morning, Andy.

Andrew Kaplowitz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your questions.

Obviously some good margin performance in Industrial and Safety and Graphics despite lower organic growth. So as you go through the year, how much ability do you have to keep margins up even with the headwinds that you see? I know you had guided to about 150 basis points of margin improvement for the company for 3M in 2016 when you had your guidance call. Is that still what you expect within the guidance? Nicholas C. Gangestad - Chief Financial Officer & Senior Vice President: Yeah, Andy, that 150 basis points, that's still a good ballpark. There's a lot of things that are going into that, including our estimate of 1% to 3% organic growth. Some productivity coming from things such as our business transformation investment, our pension expense as well as some strategic investments. All-in, we're seeing many of those things play out exactly as we guided in December. The 150 basis points is still a good number.

Andrew Kaplowitz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your questions.

Okay. That's helpful. And your consumer businesses were strong in the quarter. Maybe they slowed a little bit versus last quarter and year-over-year growth. So just the resiliency of the consumer right now, it seems like the consumer is still pretty strong, but your view? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Yeah, it is very strong. And I think there is a couple of things that is important to think about relative to 3M and our position in the market. We are very strong in United States in our consumer business. So we have a stronger and better penetration in United States than we have outside of United States. If you look upon United States specifically, and you look upon data and facts, which is a key indicator for us relative to potential growth rates, we all know that there is a challenge on IPI as we go into 2016. And the fact there is saying that it's slower Q1, Q2, maybe Q3, and then Q4 it will pick up again on IPI year-over-year. If you look upon retail sales index, it's actually different. It's very robust as we go in already to Q1 and Q2 and for the rest of the year. So I would say that our business there is in a good position. And we feel very good about it. We have very good brands. We add a lot of value into the channels, and we are managing a lot of categories in that business. The same goes for Health Care. Health Care is the same. Health Care for us, and I'm not talking U.S. versus outside of U.S. there. I am talking about developed economies versus developing economies. And 80% of our portfolio in Health Care is in developed economies, meaning developing is still a huge opportunity for us. And we are growing very well there. And our margins are very high. So I think that's coming back to in times like this, where you see some challenges in some economies around the world, if that's in Industrial or Electronics or even in safety. We have the advantage that we have domestic-driven businesses in Consumer and Health Care that this carries on. And you saw that this quarter again, Health Care had almost 5% organic local currency, the strongest for the year and with margin expansion. It's just a fantastic business for us and the same go for consumer. So we feel very, very good about them. And it's sustainable. I think that's the important thing that it is a sustainable business model for us based on world class product solutions.

Andrew Kaplowitz - Citigroup Global Markets, Inc.

Analyst · your questions.

Thanks, guys.

Operator

Operator

Our next question comes from the line of Joe Ritchie of Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question. Joseph Alfred Ritchie - Goldman Sachs & Co.: Thanks. Good morning, guys. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Good morning, Joe. Joseph Alfred Ritchie - Goldman Sachs & Co.: So two quick questions. Maybe focused on your Industrial business for a second. Inge, you've had some distributors recently talking about improving short cycle trends in January and there's been some green shoots that we're seeing as well out of the semi sector. Just wondering is there anything across your Industrial business today where you're starting to feel better about things incrementally or is it still – the trends are still very similar to what we've been feeling for the last six months? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: No. I would say that there are certain pieces in our business that are doing very well. And I can – 3M purification is doing extremely well. Had a growth rate in the quarter of 10%. And for the full year 8%. Automotive OEM is doing very well for us. Had a growth in the quarter of 7% and in fact for the whole year is around 7%. And then I think that some – where the pressure is just now is I would say general manufacturing. And then that go broad based, right? But I will not say short term. As we're talking here in the next quarter or the next five months, I don't see that we will see a big pick up. I think it would be very similar in Q1 versus Q4. But some businesses doing very well; automotive OEM and purification doing extremely well. But we have also to think about…

Operator

Operator

And our final question comes from the line of Laurence Alexander of Jefferies. Please proceed with your question.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Good morning. Two quick ones. Just wanted to flag – in auto OEM are you seeing any soft spots around the world? And secondly as you look at your share gains, do you see those as sustainable? Or is that a pro-cyclical phenomena that is as end markets improve your pace of share gains slows down? Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: No. They are sustainable. If you think about it, you're going to look upon the facts we have now for three to four years outgrown the automotive production on a global base. So our growth is always more robust than the total output of cars produced. That is indicating that we penetrate and take more application per car. That is sustainable by definition, due to the fact that we provide solutions that is helping automotive industries with technology conversion. So don't view us as a commodity player that is coming in, he has to try to replace someone. For us, it's about technology conversion moving you to the next level on your specific retail in order for you to be able to compete in the marketplace. So that is sustainable by definition, and that's what 3M is all about. I will not say today that I see any differentiation where someone is becoming much, much stronger geographically, some other weaker geographically in terms of production of cars. That is where we play, right. We design-in, spec-in always at the headquarters of companies, if that's in Germany, Japan or United States. And then where the car is produced, that is where we have the teams to put the application in place, a type of development and deployment. And I don't feel there's any differentiation there on a geographical base. But our model is sustainable.

Laurence Alexander - Jefferies LLC

Analyst

Thank you.

Matthew Ginter - Vice President-Investor Relations

Management

Thanks, Lawrence.

Operator

Operator

That concludes the question-and-answer portion of our conference call. I will now turn the call back over to Inge Thulin for closing comments. Inge G. Thulin - Chairman, President & Chief Executive Officer: Thank you. To wrap up, 2015 was an important year for 3M as we made investments and took actions to propel ourselves for the future. As a result, we are well positioned to drive efficient growth and create greater value for our shareholders in 2016 and beyond. I thank you for joining us, and we look forward to seeing you all here in St. Paul in March. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

Ladies and gentlemen, that does conclude the conference call for today. We thank you for your participation, and ask that you please disconnect your line.