The Wall Street Journal-20080130-Earnings Digest -- Manufacturing- 3M Co-

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Earnings Digest -- Manufacturing: 3M Co.

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3M Co.'s fourth-quarter profit fell 28% as year-earlier results included a gain on the sale of its branded drugs business, but sales and margins rose from the previous year, boosted by the weak U.S. dollar. Soleil Securities analyst Mark R. Gulley called the company's performance "more or less in line" with forecasts, noting that favorable foreign-currency trends buoyed the results. The manufacturing giant said its closely watched optical films business had "a low single digit decline" in fourth-quarter sales. Chief Executive George W. Buckley called 3M's overall results solid, and reiterated a previous forecast for "a minimum" of 10% earnings growth in 2008.