3M Profit Beats Estimates on U.S. Auto-Supply Demand
By Thomas Black - Apr 24, 2012 7:49 AM ET
3M Co. (MMM), the maker of Post-it Notes and fuel system tuneup kits, beat analysts’ first-quarter profit estimates as U.S. auto and industrial demand helped make up for slowing markets abroad.
Net income rose to $1.13 billion, or $1.59 a share, from $1.08 billion, or $1.49, a year earlier, 3M said today in a statement. Per-share results included a 4-cent charge for early retirements. Analysts projected 3M would earn $1.49 a share, the average of 15 estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The U.S. drove sales at 3M’s Industrial and Transportation unit, the largest division at the St. Paul, Minnesota-based company. Revenue fell 12 percent for the Display and Graphics business, which serves the manufacturers of liquid crystal display televisions with optical films.
3M also raised the low end of its 2012 profit forecast, saying earnings would be in a range of $6.35 to $6.50 a share, from a previous floor of $6.25.
Sales rose 2.4 percent to $7.49 billion. That exceeded the average estimate of $7.44 billion, based on eight analysts surveyed by Bloomberg.
3M gained 2.3 percent to $89.16 at 7:45 a.m. before regular trading in New York. The shares rose 6.6 percent this year before today.
Chief Executive Officer Inge Thulin, 58, said in a Feb. 8 interview he plans to maintain the company’s current strategy of growth through emerging-market expansion and spending on research. He succeeded George Buckley, who had served as CEO since December 2005 and reached the company’s mandatory retirement age of 65.
To contact the reporter on this story: Thomas Black in Dallas at tblack@bloomberg.net
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