3M Rises 14.3% in the Past Year: Should You Buy the Stock Now or Wait?

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Closing at $183.13 in the last trading session, the stock is trading close to its 52-week high of $184.90 and significantly higher than its 52-week low of $139.34. 3M stock is trading above both its 50-day and 200-day moving averages, indicating solid upward momentum and price stability. This reflects a positive market sentiment and confidence in the company's financial health and long-term prospects.

MMM Stock Trading Above 50-Day & 200-Day Moving Averages

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Let’s take a look at 3M’s fundamentals to better analyze how to play the stock.

Factors Driving MMM’s Performance

3M is benefiting from solid momentum in the Safety and Industrial segment, driven by strength in personal safety, industrial adhesives and tapes, abrasives and electrical markets. Steady demand for electrical infrastructure products like medium voltage cable accessories and insulation tapes bodes well for the segment in the quarters ahead. Also, new product launches and an increase in demand for industrial adhesives and electronics bonding solutions augur well for it. The segment’s organic sales increased 8.2% year over year in the second quarter of 2026.

MMM’s Transportation and Electronics segment is gaining from strength in the transportation and aerospace end markets. Solid momentum in the semiconductor, data center, aerospace and defense and commercial branding, driven by demand for new products and expanding sales coverage, is proving beneficial for the segment. The segment’s organic revenues increased 5.9% year over year in the second quarter.

Backed by strength across its businesses, the company provided a positive outlook. For 2026, 3M expects total adjusted organic sales to grow more than 3.5% on a year-over-year basis.

3M has been undertaking structural reorganization actions to reduce the size of its corporate center, streamline its geographic footprint, simplify the supply chain, align business go-to-market models to customers and optimize manufacturing roles to align with production volumes. The company expects these restructuring actions to reduce operational costs and improve margins and cash flow in the long term.

Acquisitions have been MMM's preferred mode of business expansion to date. In July 2026, the company completed the acquisition of Madison Fire & Rescue in partnership with Bain Capital. The two companies established a joint venture where 3M will contribute its Scott Safety business, receive $700 million in cash and hold a 50.1% stake, while Bain Capital owns 49.9%. The transaction strengthened the company’s safety portfolio.

3M is committed to rewarding its shareholders handsomely through dividend payments and share buybacks. In the first six months of 2026, the company rewarded its shareholders with $813 million in dividends and $3 billion in buybacks.

However, softness in the consumer retail end markets, owing to subdued consumer discretionary spending, remains a concern for MMM. This is reflected in the Consumer segment’s results. The segment’s organic revenues declined 2.1% in the second quarter of 2026.

The company has been dealing with the adverse impacts of high costs and expenses. Its cost of sales was up 4.7% year over year. The cost of sales, as a percentage of total revenues, climbed 120 basis points to reach 58.7% in the same period. This upward trajectory in costs results from increased tariff-related costs, rising oil prices and cost dis-synergies from the PFAS manufacturing exit.

Stock Valuation

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MMM has a forward 12-month price-to-earnings ratio of 19.46X, which is above the industry average of 15.92X. In comparison with 3M’s valuation, its peer ITT is trading at higher valuation while Carlisle is trading cheaper. ITT and Carlisle are trading at 24.70X and 16.88X, respectively.

Earnings Estimate Revision

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Earnings estimates for MMM have increased 3% over the past 60 days for 2026 and 4.5% for 2027.

Conclusion

3M is well-positioned for growth, supported by strong momentum in the Safety and Industrial and Transportation and Electronics segments, new product launches and a positive 2026 outlook. Its restructuring initiatives and shareholder-friendly actions are also likely to support margins, cash flow and investor confidence.

Despite softness in consumer retail markets and rising costs, favorable analyst sentiment and strong growth prospects suggest that investors may consider this Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) stock. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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This article originally published on Zacks Investment Research (zacks.com).

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