St. Paul, Minnesota, April 25, 2026, 12:06 CDT
3M Co. ended Friday up 0.79% at $145.99, with investors digesting a quarterly profit beat while management kept its 2026 outlook steady and flagged higher oil costs. That was the last price before the weekend; U.S. trading didn’t take place Saturday.
The pressure’s on for 3M as CEO William Brown works to convince investors his turnaround can boost margins, despite tariffs, sluggish U.S. consumer demand, and pricier raw materials. First-quarter results gave the industrials name a little breathing room. The underlying debate? Far from settled.
First-quarter sales hit $6.0 billion, a 1.3% bump from last year, with adjusted earnings climbing 14% to $2.14 per share. Adjusted operating margin edged up 30 basis points to 23.8%. 3M is sticking with its adjusted 2026 earnings outlook of $8.50 to $8.70 a share.
Analysts polled by LSEG, as reported by Reuters, were looking for adjusted earnings of $1.99 a share on $6.01 billion in sales. Instead, cost discipline drove the beat, not a surge in buyer appetite: adjusted organic sales—which leave out things like currency shifts, M&A, and some discontinued products—ticked up just 1.2%.
Brown told investors 3M saw a “good start to the year” and said he’s sticking with the full-year outlook, even with the “volatile environment.” He flagged order trends that, he said, point to a pickup in the second quarter. That matters for 3M, which still books and ships much of its sales in the same quarter. CloudFront
Oil remains the main drag. According to Reuters, 3M flagged a $125 million jump in yearly costs from pricier oil, with Brown suggesting the company might tack on roughly 50 basis points to product prices to balance things out. CFO Anurag Maheshwari said they managed to counter about $145 million in tariffs, spending, and investments through productivity gains in the quarter.
The numbers landed all over the map. Safety and industrial sales climbed 3.2%. On the flip side, consumer sales dropped 1.3%, transportation and electronics edged down 0.3%, according to Reuters. Brown pointed out that around 60% of the portfolio held up—general industrial and safety were among the brighter spots. The rest, about 40%, lagged: consumer electronics, auto, and some pockets of consumer demand stayed weak.
Another issue: the backlog. Vertical Research’s Jeffrey Sprague pushed 3M for clarity—were those stronger orders just customers buying ahead of price hikes, or was there genuine Q2 visibility? Maheshwari put a number on it, saying about 75% of any quarter’s revenue is tied to book-and-ship demand. The backlog still played its part, giving 3M an extra 400 to 500 basis points of coverage going into the period.
3M continues to overhaul its portfolio and factory footprint. In its latest quarterly report, the company noted it wrapped up the sale of its precision grinding and finishing unit back in April. That operation brought in roughly $130 million in yearly sales. As for its Madison Fire & Rescue partnership with Bain Capital, 3M expects that deal to close in the back half of 2026.
Friday’s move put 3M ahead of certain industrial names. Illinois Tool Works dropped 1.4%, Honeywell slipped 0.6%. 3M managed a 0.8% lift, hinting that cost-cutting efforts resonated with investors, despite the company not raising its full-year outlook.
J.P. Morgan’s Chigusa Katoku isn’t budging from a Hold on the stock, sticking with a $182 price target. Katoku highlighted stubborn oil-based input costs and sluggish demand for consumer electronics as risks, according to Barron’s.
But there’s not much cushion built into the plan. In its latest quarterly filing, 3M flagged tariffs, higher costs for raw materials and energy, as well as PFAS liabilities and ongoing legal issues as risks that could knock results off course from what management has laid out. PFAS—nicknamed “forever chemicals”—can persist for decades, and 3M added that any change in regulations or new legislation could widen its liability for activities before quitting PFAS production. 3M Company
At this point, 3M is all about margins, though demand’s still hanging in the balance. The focus is on whether solid April orders actually feed through into Q2 sales, and if recent price hikes hold up—without putting extra pressure on consumer and electronics sectors.
