3M Boosts Annual Outlook Following Strong First Quarter -- Update

3M Co. on Tuesday said it raised its full-year profit outlook as first-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations, boosted by growth in its core industrial unit and a resurgent electronics business.

The St. Paul, Minn., company said it now expects earnings on a per-share basis between $8.70 and $9.05, up from a prior forecast of $8.45 to $8.80.

The company also projected local-currency sales growth to be between 2% and 5%, up from a previous range of 1% to 3%.

Shares of the company rose 2.2% premarket to $198.40.

The maker of consumer and industrial products such as Post-it Notes and Scotch tape and industrial adhesives said sales in its industrial segment, the company's largest by revenue, increased 4.2% to $2.71 billion.

Sales in its previously struggling electronics and energy segment, which makes components for everything from smartphone screens to components for wind and solar power generation, climbed 11% during the quarter.

Chief Executive Inge Thulin said during a conference call that a shift into faster growing businesses in the segment has started to pay off.

"We've done a lot of work with that business over the last couple of years," he said, crediting data centers, automotive electronics, energy grids and communication infrastructure as some of the areas spurring growth in the segment.

Over all for the quarter, 3M reported a profit of $1.32 billion, or $2.16 a share, up from $1.28 billion, or $2.05, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.7% to $7.69 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $2.06 on $7.47 billion in revenue.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at ezequiel.minaya@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2017 10:32 ET (14:32 GMT)