E d w a r d L M O n s E r P r e s i d e n t a n d C h i e f O p e r a t i n g O f f i c e r growth maintaining strategic investment programs advancing portfolio repositioning objectives and generating record cash flow much of which was allocated to directly supporting shareholder returns through dividends and share repurchase Sales in 2013 were 247 billion up slightly from 2012 as underlying growth in three businesses was partially offset by declines in the other two Underlying sales excluding acquisitions divestitures and currency translation increased 2 percent compared with the prior year led by emerging market growth of 5 percent Gross profit margin reached a record level of 403 percent reflecting continued technology innovation and cost repositioning efforts EBIT margin remained essentially unchanged from 2012 and earnings per share excluding noncash goodwill impairment and tax repatriation charges primarily related to the embedded computing and power business were 354 in 2013 up 4 percent versus 339 in 2012 Operating cash flow reached an alltime high of 36 billion enabled by strong operational execution and highquality earnings We returned a substantial portion of this cash to our shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchase reflecting a 63 percent total payout ratio which was augmented with cash expected from the embedded computing and power transaction The past year also marked the 57th consecutive year of dividend increases reflecting our longstanding commitment to returning cash to our investors In November the Board of Directors further increased the dividend by 5 percent to an annual rate of 172 Despite the difficulty in predicting the macroeconomic outlook with many factors beyond our control we see vast opportunity to drive improvement and create value by focusing on variables within our control which is the spirit of Perfect Execution As we look to the year ahead and the years beyond we can see the benefits that Perfect Execution will bring to Emerson our customers and our shareholders E m e r s o n 2 0 1 3 A n n u a l R e p o r t 3