3M Co. (MMM)
Industrials · NYSE · US
Fundamentals
Valuation and ratings
3M Co. trades at $161.77, which is 61% above the $63.01 our discounted cash flow model puts on the business. On that measure it screens as expensive, which is not the same as saying it will fall.
Our moat model scores it 56 out of 100, which is a moat, but not a deep one. A moat is a structural reason competitors cannot take the profits away, and it matters more to a long holding period than any single quarter's numbers do.
It changes hands at 30.4 times earnings. Be careful reading that in isolation: for a cyclical business a low P/E arrives at the top of the cycle, when profits are peaking and about to fall, which is exactly when the shares look cheapest and are not.
About 3M Co.
3M Company provides diversified technology services in the America, the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Safety and Industrial, Transportation and Electronics, and Consumer. The Safety and Industrial segment provides industrial abrasives and finishing for metalworking applications; autobody repair solutions; industrial specialty products, such as personal hygiene products, masking, and packaging materials; electrical products and materials for construction and maintenance, power distribution, and electrical original equipment manufacturers; structural adhesives and tapes; respiratory, hearing, eye, and fall protection solutions; and natural and color-coated mineral granules for shingles. The Transportation and Electronics segment provides ceramic solutions; attachment and bonding, films, sound, and temperature management for transportation vehicles; format graphic films for advertising and fleet signage; reflective signage for highway and vehicle safety; light management films and electronics assembly solutions; chip packaging and interconnection solutions; semiconductor production materials; and data center solutions. The Consumer segment offers cleaning products for the home; consumer air quality products; picture hanging accessories; retail abrasives, paint accessories, and safety products; stationery and office products; automotive appearance products; and consumer bandages, tapes, braces, and supports. It serves automotive; commercial solutions; consumer markets; design and construction; electronics; energy; government; manufacturing; safety; transportation industries. The company offers its products through e-commerce and traditional wholesalers, retailers, jobbers, distributors, channel partner, and dealers, as well as directly to users. 3M Company was founded in 1902 and is headquartered in Saint Paul, Minnesota.
MMM passes 1 of our 30 screens today
Each screen prints the exact criteria it used, and the circumstances in which it is wrong.
Smart money ownership
5 of the funds we track reported a position in their latest SEC 13F filing. Largest first:
- D. E. Shaw, D. E. Shaw & Co., Inc.$768.52M · 0.5% of book
- Israel Englander, MILLENNIUM MANAGEMENT LLC$204.85M · 0.1% of book
- Cliff Asness, AQR CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LLC$200.20M · 0.1% of book
- Ken Griffin, CITADEL ADVISORS LLC$191.86M · 0.0% of book
- Marshall Wace, MARSHALL WACE, LLP$154.09M · 0.1% of book
A word of warning on reading these figures: a 13F reports the market value of a holding, so a fund that traded nothing at all still appears to have sold when the price fell. We found 102 companies where the standard reading gives the opposite answer. Only the share count is honest.
Common questions
Is 3M Co. (MMM) undervalued?
Against our discounted cash flow estimate of $63.01, MMM at $161.77 is 61% above fair value. That is one model's answer, not a recommendation, and most of a DCF's output sits in a terminal value nobody can forecast.
Which funds own MMM?
5 of the institutions we track reported a position in MMM in their most recent SEC 13F filing. A 13F is filed up to 45 days after quarter end, so it tells you what a fund held then, not what it holds now.
What is MMM's P/E ratio?
MMM trades at 30.4 times earnings. A low P/E is not automatically cheap: on a cyclical company it is usually a warning that earnings are at a peak.
The full research page for MMM, with financial statements, ownership detail, peer comparison and alerts, is free inside the app.
Data from company filings, exchange quotes and SEC EDGAR 13F disclosures. Quotes are delayed. Metrics we do not have are left out rather than estimated. Educational information, not financial advice.