Sometimes, a little extra analyst support can make the difference between a disaster and a win. 3M (NYSE:MMM) discovered as much recently when the consumer products titan landed some new support from analysts. Shares went up nearly 2% in Friday afternoon’s trading thanks largely to that.
Wesley Brooks at HSBC upgraded 3M from Hold to Buy and boosted the price target from $91 to $115. The biggest reason? 3M’s latest earnings report, which featured “…initial signs of an inflection in growth and margin gains from restructuring.” If the macroeconomic environment starts to improve—which it will likely have to at some point—that should bolster 3M’s fate right along with it. And after spinning off Solventum and kicking off some cost-cutting, things have been looking much better at 3M, all told.
It’s worth that, so far, Brooks has enjoyed an 82% success rate on his ratings, with an average return of 13.2% per rating.
Bracing for Growth
That by itself is encouraging news, but there are other signs afoot in 3M’s favor. One of the biggest is found at its manufacturing plant in Valley, Nebraska. They’re planning a major expansion there, adding an extra 90,000 square feet of space priced at $67 million for new production lines and a warehouse for finished goods. Clearly, 3M is expecting sales growth; why plan to meet demand that isn’t there?
Is 3M a Buy, Sell, or Hold Stock?
Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Hold consensus rating on MMM stock based on one Buy, seven Holds, and one Sell assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After a 25.04% rally in its share price over the past year, the average MMM price target of $106.33 per share implies 7.23% upside potential.
