Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the 2026 Annual Shareholder Meeting of 3M Company. Now I will turn the meeting over to Mr. Kevin Rhodes, Corporate Secretary of 3M. Mr. Rhodes.
Thank you. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the 2026 Annual Shareholders Meeting of 3M Company. I'm Kevin Rhodes, Executive Vice President, Chief Legal Affairs Officer, and Secretary. With me today are Bill Brown, Chairman of the Board of Directors and Chief Executive Officer, and Chinmay Trivedi, our Senior Vice President of Investor Relations and Financial Planning and Analysis. Let me begin with a few opening remarks, then I will turn the meeting over to Bill. First, in the unlikely event we lose audio or webcast connection, please stand by and allow us time to resolve the issue and resume the meeting or otherwise provide an update about the meeting. Unless the chairman otherwise elects, if a technical disruption prevents us from continuing the meeting while the polls are open, the polls will be closed immediately.
Once the polls are closed, votes received prior to the time the polls were closed will be counted, the meeting will not be reconvened, and the final voting results will be announced later this week. Next, please note that during today's meeting, we may 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. Please refer to our most recent Form 10-K for risk factors that could cause actual results to differ from our predictions. Finally, shareholders may submit questions electronically during the meeting by typing the question in the Q&A box located at the bottom of the webcast screen. Shareholders also had the opportunity to submit questions via the proxy vote website in advance of the meeting.
We will respond to questions following the business-related items in accordance with the procedural rules for the meeting. We also intend to address questions pertinent to the meeting that are not answered today, either by directly responding to the submitter or by posting answers online on our investor relations website. Let me turn it over to Bill.
Thank you, Kevin. Good morning, everyone, and welcome to 3M's annual meeting of shareholders. Kevin advises me that we have a quorum for this meeting and that all shareholders of record have been sent a notice of this meeting. On the record date of March 17, 2026, there were approximately 522.4 million shares of common stock issued and outstanding. Over 83% are represented here today, either online or by proxy. Therefore, I call this meeting to order. It is approximately 8:32 A.M. Central Daylight Time on May 12, 2026, and the polls on all proposals set forth in our Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement are now open. To vote, click on Vote Here at the bottom of the web screen. We have 3 business items for today, which Kevin will conduct.
Following the business items, we'll address shareholder questions that comply with our procedural rules. It is now my privilege to introduce our board of directors. All 10 director nominees are attending today's meeting through this live webcast. Dave Bozeman, President and CEO, C.H. Robinson. Tony Brown, Retired Group Vice President, Global Purchasing, Ford Motor Company. Audrey Choi, Retired Chief Sustainability Officer, Morgan Stanley. Anne Chow, Retired CEO, AT&T Business. Jim Fitterling, Chair and CEO, Dow. Suzan Kereere, President, Global Markets, PayPal. Neil Mitchill, Executive Vice President and CFO, RTX Corporation. Pedro Pizarro, President and CEO, Edison International. Tom Sweet, Retired CFO, Dell Technologies. I would like to take this opportunity to recognize and thank Dave Dillon, whose term ends today, for his contributions to 3M and its board of directors over the past 10-plus years. I wish Dave all the best in his future endeavors.
I'll now turn the program back over to Kevin.
Thank you, Bill. Please note that both the meeting agenda and the rules of conduct and procedures are posted and linked at the bottom of the webcast screen under Meeting Materials. Our board has appointed Broadridge Financial Solutions to act as the inspector of election for the meeting. PricewaterhouseCoopers, our independent auditors, are also attending today's meeting through this live webcast. The board of directors is presenting three proposals, each of which is described in the proxy statement. Under the company's bylaws, the only matters properly before our shareholders today are those set forth in the Notice of Annual Meeting and Proxy Statement. No other items of business will be considered at the meeting. The first proposal is to elect 10 directors for one-year terms that expire at the 2027 annual meeting. Information regarding each of the nominees is included in the proxy statement.
The second proposal is to ratify the audit committee's appointment of PricewaterhouseCoopers as 3M's independent registered public accounting firm for 2026. The third proposal is to approve, on an advisory basis, the compensation of our named executive officers as described in the proxy statement. The board recommends a vote for each director nominee and for each of the other two proposals. This concludes the review of the business matters to be voted on. If you have not already voted your shares, including by submitting your proxy prior to the meeting, or if you wish to change your vote, you may do so by clicking on Vote Here at the bottom of the webcast screen. It is now approximately 8:36 A.M. on May 12th, 2026, and the polls are now closed. I will now turn the meeting back over to Bill.
Thank you, Kevin. Based on preliminary results provided by the Inspector of Election, our shareholders have voted to elect all 10 nominees for a one-year term, ratify PricewaterhouseCoopers as 3M's independent public accounting firm for 2026, and approve on an advisory basis the executive compensation of our named executive officers. The final results will become part of the record of the meeting and will be reported in a Form 8-K. All business items have been completed, and the annual meeting is now adjourned. Before I turn things over to Chinmay to manage the Q&A, let me make a few comments. 2025 was a foundational year for 3M. We strengthened the core of our operating model by bringing greater rigor, accountability, and speed to how we work, enabling strong execution against our priorities and setting the stage for continued success in 2026.
Looking ahead, we remain focused on driving organic growth, enhancing operational performance, and deploying capital effectively. We will sharpen execution, advance commercial excellence, and continue investing in innovation that meets customers' needs. We will also maintain a disciplined approach to portfolio management, concentrating on markets where 3M is well-positioned to win. As always, we appreciate the support and the confidence of our shareholders. With that, I'll turn it over to Chinmay for Q&A.
Thank you, Bill. Good morning, everyone. We will now address shareholder questions received before and during the meeting. We refer you to our meeting procedural rules for information on permissible questions. Bill, we received questions on 3M's growth strategy and stock performance. Can you talk about the company's plan to reinvigorate growth?
Well, sure. We're focused on creating value for all of our shareholders, which includes driving top-line growth, expanding margins, growing our earnings, and returning cash to shareholders. Growth, as we know, has been trending up. It grew 2.2% last year versus 1.2% in the prior year. Our goal and our guidance this year is to grow 3% organically with acceleration driven by both innovation as well as commercial excellence. We're clearly launching more new products. We launched 284 products in 2025. That's up 70% year-over-year and ahead of our 215 NPI target.
We're on pace to launch 350+ in 2026, which is triple the rate of which we were launching products in 2023. It's ahead of our Investor Day target to launch 1,000 new products through 2027. On the other side, on commercial excellence, we're seeing the benefits from improved sales effectiveness, lower customer attrition, and progress on cross-selling. We closed so far $80 million of new business that's cross-selling against the three-year $100 million Investor Day target. We have a pipeline of additional $85 million worth of cross-sell opportunities. Actually, very good progress there. Margins are up 480 basis points the last couple of years. You know, our goal this year is up 70 to 80 basis points. We're consistently driving cash above net income.
We returned $4.8 billion last year to shareholders in dividends and repurchases, plus another $2.8 billion here in the first quarter. The share price is reflecting a lot of this progress. It's up over 50% in the last two years, and it's outpacing the S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Industrials.
Thanks, Bill. We have also received questions about director and executive compensation. Could you talk through how you are thinking about the company's approach to compensation?
Sure. On the director side, director compensation is overseen by the Nom and Gov Committee of the board, and it's approved by the full board. Nom and Gov is comprised solely of independent directors, and they're supported by an independent compensation consultant, FW Cook, who benchmarks director comp against a broad set of peer companies. You know, our goal here is reasonable and appropriate compensation to attract top talent to the board and to pay them fairly for the work that's required given 3M's size and our complexity. The compensation for directors is a mix of a cash retainer and stock that can't be sold while a director remains on the board, it aligns directors' interests with long-term interests of our shareholders.
On the executive comp side, it's overseen by our Comp and Talent Committee, also comprised solely of independent directors with peer benchmarking also completed by the same independent compensation consultant, FW Cook. Exec comp is designed to support our pay-for-performance philosophy, with the majority of compensation being incentive-based and at risk based on the company's performance. You know, the board very clearly solicits shareholder input and perspectives on exec comp, as well as the results of our annual say-on-pay advisory vote when they review various compensation programs. We made a number of changes to our comp plan in the last couple of years, and I'm pleased with the strong support of shareholders in the vote this year.
I have one more question here from the queue. Has the conflict in Middle East had any material effect on our company?
It's a good question. It's, so our business in the Middle East is relatively small. It's less than 2% of our total global revenue, so I would say negligible impact on business disruption for 3M overall. You know, at the same time, we are seeing an impact on our input costs as well as on our logistics expenses. About a third of our raw material costs, so about $2 billion, is tied to various petrochemical inputs. At a $100 per barrel oil, today is where it's basically at, versus $65 per barrel at the beginning of the year, we are seeing some increased costs being incurred, which we are attempting to offset through pricing on a dollar-for-dollar basis.
At our first quarter earnings release a few weeks ago, we sized the impact this year at cost of $125 million and a price increase of $125 million, which is now reflected in the guidance that we provided. Situation we know continues to evolve. We're watching it very carefully, including any potential supply disruptions which we've not seen yet, but we're monitoring very closely. Thank you very much for that question.
Thank you, Bill. That concludes the question and answer portion of our meeting and today's webcast. Thank you very much for joining us. Have a good day.
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. This concludes the 2026 annual shareholder meeting of 3M Company. Goodbye.