Monish Patolawala
Analyst · Melius Research. Please proceed with your question
Thank you, John, and I wish you all a very good morning. Company-wide first quarter sales were $8.9 billion, up 9.6% year on year or an increase of 8% on an organic basis. Sales growth combined with operating rigor and disciplined cost management drove adjusted operating income of $2 billion, up 19%, with adjusted operating margins of 22.5%, up 170 basis points year on year. First quarter GAAP and adjusted earnings per share were $2.77, up 27% compared to last year's adjusted results. On this slide, you can see the components that impacted both margins and earnings per share. Organic volume growth along with our ongoing cost management and productivity efforts were the biggest contributors to first quarter operating margins and earnings, adding 150 basis points to margins and $0.34 to earnings per share year on year. Turning to selling prices and raw materials, as Mike mentioned, we experienced increasing cost particularly for raw materials and logistics due to the impacts on the strengthening end markets, ongoing COVID pandemic, along with Winter Storm Uri. As a result, first quarter net selling price and raw materials performance reduced both operating margins and earnings per share by 20 basis points and $0.01, respectively. In our view, we expect global supply chain dynamics to remain fluid and for raw material and logistics headwinds to persist. Therefore, we now anticipate a full year raw materials and logistics headwind of $0.30 to $0.50 per share versus a prior expectation of flat to a $0.10 headwind at the start of the year. Looking at the second quarter, we currently anticipate a net selling price and raw materials headwinds to operating margin in the range of 75 to 125 basis points. We are taking multiple actions to address these increased headwinds including selling price increases, global sourcing efforts, improving yields in our factories, and ongoing demand planning given the dynamic environment. We expect these actions will gain traction as we move through the year, particularly in the second half. Moving to divestiture impacts, the lost income from the drug delivery divestiture in May of last year was neutral to margins, however, was a $0.03 headwind year on year to earnings. Foreign currency net of hedging impacts added 40 basis points to margins and $0.13 to earnings per share as the U.S. dollar weakened against most major currencies year on year. We continue to expect foreign exchange to be an earnings benefit of $0.15 per share for the full year. Three other non-operating items impacted our year on year earnings per share performance. First, our continued strong cash flow and liquidity position give us the opportunity in Q1 to redeem an additional $450 million of debt early that was due to mature in 2022. As a result, we incurred higher net interest expense of approximately $0.02 per share versus Q1 last year. This impact was more than offset by year on year non-operating pension benefit of $0.05 per share. Combined, these items resulted in lower net non-operating expense of $0.03 per share versus last year's first quarter. Secondly, a lower tax rate versus last year provided a $0.14 benefit to earnings per share. The lower tax rate was primarily a function of non-repeating favorable adjustments related to U.S. tax treatment of international income along with regional income mix and equity based compensation. Our full year 2021 tax rate expectations remain unchanged in the range of 20% to 21%. Finally, average diluted shares were up 1% year on year which reduced per share earnings by $0.02. Please turn to slide 8 for a discussion of our cash flow and balance sheet. We delivered another quarter of robust free cash flow with first quarter adjusted free cash flow of $1.4 billion, up 49% year on year, with conversion of 86%. Cash flows in the quarter were primarily driven by robust growth in cash flow from operations along with our ongoing daily management of working capital. First quarter capital expenditures were $310 million. For the full year, we continue to expect CapEx to be in the range of $1.8 billion to $2 billion. During the quarter, we returned $1.1 billion to shareholders through the combination of cash dividends of $858 million and share repurchases of $231 million. Our strong cash flow generation and disciplined capital allocation enabled us to continue to strengthen our capital structure. We ended the quarter with $13 billion in net debt, a reduction of nearly $5 billion since the end of Q1 last year. As a result, our net debt to EBITDA ratio has declined significantly from 2.2 a year ago to 1.4 at the end of Q1. Our net debt position along with our strong cash flow generation capability continues to provide us financial flexibility to invest in our business, pursue strategic opportunities, and return cash to shareholders while maintaining a strong capital structure. Please turn to slide 9 where I will summarize the business group performance for Q1. I will start with our Safety and Industrial business which posted organic growth of 10.3% year on year in the first quarter. This result includes a 6.4 percentage point benefit from pandemic-related respirator demand. Looking ahead, we continue to anticipate strong pandemic-related respirator mask demand. However, the year on year contribution to sales growth will decline as we lap last year's quarterly comparison. Overall, general Industrial manufacturing activity continued to improve during Q1, resulting in a pick-up in growth across the portfolio. Personal Safety posted double digit organic growth year on year driven by ongoing demand for respirators. Industrial adhesives and tapes grew low-double digits primarily due to strong demand across Industrial and Electronics end markets. The continued strength in the residential housing market drove good performance in our roofing granules business which was up double digits organically versus Q1 of last year. Turning to the rest of the Safety and Industrial businesses, Automotive Aftermarket grew high-single digits organically, the Electrical Markets business was up mid-single digits, and Abrasives grew low-single digits while our Closure and Masking business declined year on year. Safety and Industrials first quarter segment operating margin were 24.4% up 70 basis points year on year. Operating margins were driven by leverage on sales growth which was partially offset by increase in raw materials, logistics, and legal costs. Moving to Transportation and Electronics, which delivered a strong start to the year with first quarter organic sales growth of 9.8% despite the well-known semiconductor supply chain constraints. Our Electronics-related business was up high-teens organically with continued strength in semiconductor, factory automation, and data centers, along with strong demand for consumer electronic devices, namely tablets and TVs. Our Auto OEM business was up 21% year on year compared to the 14% increase in global car and light truck builds. Looking ahead, we continue to monitor the global semiconductor supply chain and its potential impact on the electronics and automotive industries. Turning to Advanced Materials, which increased mid-single digits largely as a result of the year on year increase in automotive builds and finally, our Transportation Safety business was flat year on year while Commercial Solutions declined slightly. Transportation and Electronics first quarter operating margin were 23.3%, up 260 basis points year on year, benefiting from strong leverage on sales growth and prior-year COVID-related asset write-downs which were partially offset by increases in raw materials and logistics costs. Turning to our Healthcare business, healthcare providers continue to be challenged from the ebbs and flows of COVID-19 cases as elective procedure volume still remains significantly below pre-pandemic levels. At the same time, we continue to experience strong pandemic-related demand for respirators to protect frontline healthcare workers which more than offset the headwinds from the decline in elective procedure volumes. As a result, our Healthcare business delivered first quarter organic sales growth of 9.3% versus last year. The Medical Solutions business grew high-single digits driven by continued strong respirator demand. Excluding respirators, organic growth in this business was down low-single digits due to the ongoing year on year impact of low procedure volumes. Organic sales for our Oral Care business increased double digits year on year. This result is primarily due to last year's COVID related comp as dental offices started closing their doors during Q1 last year. The Separation and Purification business increased low-teens year on year. This business continues to experience solid demand for biopharma filtration solutions for COVID-related vaccines and therapeutic development and manufacturing along with improving demand trends for water filtration solutions. Health Information Systems returned to positive organic growth, up mid-single digits, while Food Safety declined mid-single digits organically versus last year's strong comparison. Healthcare's first quarter operating margins were 22.7%, up 120 basis points year on year. First quarter margins were driven by leverage on sales growth which was partially offset by supply chain disruption and increasing raw materials and logistics costs. Lastly, first quarter organic growth for our Consumer business was 7.8% year on year with strength across most retail channels led by e-commerce. Organic sales growth continued to be led by the Home Improvement business, up double digits organically driven by strong demand for Command adhesives, Filtrete air quality solutions, and ScotchBlue painter's tape. Stationery and Office returned to positive organic growth in Q1, up mid-single digits, with ongoing strength in consumer demand for packaging and shipping products. This business also delivered improved growth in Scotch brand office tapes, as we start to lap the COVID-related impacts from remote work and school trends. And finally, our Home Care business was up low-single digits organically versus last year's strong comparison. Consumer's operating margins were 21.1%, or similar to last year, as leverage on sales growth was offset by increasing costs for raw materials, logistics, outsourced hard goods manufacturing, and increased investments in advertising and merchandising. Please turn to slide 10 for a discussion of our full year 2021 guidance. As you can see from our Q1 results, we are off to a good start to the year. Looking ahead, as Mike mentioned, we expect continued strengthening of the global economy along with increasing opportunities in end markets with favorable trends. However, we foresee that the improvement will remain fluid and uneven as we go through 2021 given the ongoing impact of the pandemic. As a result, we anticipate a number of items that will need to be navigated as we go through the year. For example, starting with evolving impacts from COVID including respirator demand, healthcare elective procedures, supply chains, shutdowns, and government response. Next, the continued constrained supply of semiconductor chips and related impacts to consumer electronics and automotive OEM production. In addition, the expected increase in costs for raw materials and logistics and in some cases constrained availability. And finally, we expect to increase investments through the year in growth, productivity, and sustainability along with managing ongoing legal costs as PFAS and other legal proceedings progress. Thus, taking these items into account, along with it being early in the year, we think it prudent to maintain our full year guidance of 3% to 6% for organic growth, earnings per share of $9.20 to $9.70, and free cash flow conversion of 95% to 105%. Turning to the second quarter, let me highlight a few items of note. First, we expect continued strong execution by the 3M team in the face of a very fluid and uncertain environment. As I mentioned during my remarks, we have increased the expected headwind from raw materials and logistics cost for the full year. We are taking several actions including increasing selling prices to address these headwinds as we go through the year. These actions will take a little time to gain traction. Therefore, we anticipate a second quarter year on year operating margin headwind of 75 basis points to 125 basis points from selling prices net of higher raw materials and logistics costs. And finally, we expect a pretax restructuring charge in the range of $25 million to $50 million as we continue our actions related to our December 2020 announcement. To wrap up, we are off to a good start for the year delivering broad based growth, strong operational execution, and robust cash flows. We are prioritizing capital to our greatest opportunities for growth, productivity, and sustainability while focused on delivering for our customers, improving operating rigor, and enhancing daily management. With that, I thank you for your attention, and we will now take your questions.