Johnson & Johnson posted better-than-expected fourth-quarter profits but lowered their 2017 sales forecast. J&J profits came in at $1.58 a share. Sales for the quarter were $18.1 billion. (The Street)
3M, makers of Scotch tape and Post-it notes, reported quarterly results with profits of to $1.15 billion, or $1.88 per share. 3M's operating expenses fell 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Net sales fell 0.4% to $7.33 billion. The company gets more than 60% of its revenue from outside the United States. The company's stock is up 28% in the last 12 months. (Reuters)

Supermarket operator Kroger, owner of Fred Myers, will fill 10,000 jobs in 2017. This represents about 2% of Kroger's total workforce. Kroger had about 431,000 full- and part-time employees as of January 2016. The company hired more than 12,000 workers in 2016. (USA Today)

Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Huggies diapers and Kleenex tissue reported fourth-quarter profits of $505 million or $1.40 per share. That comes on sales of $4.54 billion. Kimberly-Clark shares have climbed 2.5% since the beginning of the year, but the stock has fallen more than 6% in the last 12 months. (AP)

With Northwest Quadrant Wealth Management, a Registered Investment Advisor I am Troy Reinhart.