3M Company (MMM) has seen its shares increase by 40.2% over the past year, outperforming the S&P 500’s growth of 9.4% and the Zacks Diversified Operations industry’s 3% growth. As of its last trading session, the stock closed at $142.51, remaining under its 52-week high of $156.35 but above its low of $98.26. The company has been bolstered by strong performance in its Safety and Industrial segment, which reported organic sales growth of 2.5% year over year in Q1 2025, despite challenges in the Consumer segment where revenues dropped by 1.4%.
3M’s long-term debt stood at $12.3 billion as of the end of Q1, reflecting a sequential increase of 10.8%. While the company focuses on rewarding shareholders through dividends and share buybacks—spending $396 million on dividends and $1.3 billion on buybacks in Q1—the high debt levels and persistent weakness in the automotive market present significant challenges. Analysts have revised down average earnings estimates for Q2 2025 by 1% and for 2025 by 0.9%.
