Illinois Tool Works Inc. recently reported its results for the third quarter of 2019. Revenue of $3.5 billion was down 3.7% compared to the 2018 quarter, with an unfavorable foreign currency translation impact of 1.8% and a decline in organic revenue of 1.7%.

The company’s ongoing Product Line Simplification (PLS) activities reduced organic growth by 60 basis points. The third quarter 2019 benefited from one extra shipping day vs. the prior year. Adjusting for this impact, organic revenues declined 3.2% on an equal day basis vs. a decline of 2.8% in the second quarter.

“While the demand environment continued to moderate across a broad cross section of our portfolio, we delivered another solid quarter with excellent operational execution,” said E. Scott Santi, chairman and CEO. “Our ability to overcome near-term macro challenges and deliver seven percent earnings per share growth, expand margins to 25 percent, and grow free cash flow by 12 percent is a direct result of our high quality business portfolio, the performance power of the ITW Business Model, and focused execution by our team of dedicated ITW professionals around the world.”

Revenue for ITW’s Test & Measurement and Electronics business segment declined by 4.7% to $512 million in the 2019 third quarter. Polymers & Fluids segment revenue was essentially flat (up .8%), at $418 million.

Additional details are available at www.itw.com.