Topic: How To Invest

Wall Street Stock Forecaster Hotline – Friday, July 27, 2018

Article Excerpt

3M COMPANY, $207.42, New York symbol MMM, makes over 60,000 consumer and industrial goods, including Post-It notes, Scotch tape, Scotch-Brite cleaning products, Scotchguard fabric protection and Thinsulate insulation. In the three months ended June 30, 2018, overall sales rose 7.4%, to $8.39 billion from $7.81 billion a year earlier. That beat the consensus forecast of $8.37 billion. If you factor out currency rates and businesses that 3M bought and sold, sales improved 5.6% in the quarter. Earnings rose 17.3%, to $1.9 billion from $1.6 billion. The company spent $1.6 billion on share buybacks in the latest quarter. Due to fewer shares outstanding, earnings per share rose at a faster rate of 19.0%, to $3.07 from $2.58. The latest earnings included a $0.48-a-share gain on the recent sale of 3M’s Communication Markets Division to Corning Inc. (New York symbol GLW). That business makes fibre-optic and copper cables. If you factor out all unusual items, the company earned $2.59 a share in the latest quarter…