3M earnings top expectations amid strong personal-safety equipment sales

3M reported third-quarter results Tuesday that beat analyst expectations on the back of strong personal-safety and health care equipment sales.

Here’s how the manufacturing giant’s results fared comparted to Wall Street estimates:

• EPS: $2.43 per share vs. Refinitiv estimate of $2.26 per share
• Revenue: $8.35 billion vs. $8.32 billion expected

The company’s stock traded flat in the premarket after the results were released.

3M said sales from its safety and industrial division rose 6.9% on a year-over-year basis to $3 billion, topping a FactSet estimate of $2.93 billion. The growth was driven by sales in personal safety, roofing granules, and automotive aftermarket, the company said.

Sales from 3M’s health care segment, meanwhile, popped more than 25% to $2.2 billion, driven by gains in medical solutions, separation and purification, and oral care equipment. Analysts expected health care sales to total $1.36 billion, according to FactSet.

“Our third-quarter performance demonstrated once again the strength of the 3M model as we executed well, served customers and continued to fight the pandemic,”  CEO Mike Roman said in a statement. “Though economic uncertainty and challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic remain, we returned to positive organic sales growth with sequential improvement across businesses and geographies.”

The company also said its operating cash flow came in at $2.5 billion, up 23% from the year-earlier period.

3M’s transportation and electronics division saw sales decline by 7.4% to $2.3 billion during the third quarter. The company also expects October sales to range between flat and and low single-digits growth.

Shares of 3M are down more than 5% year to date, lagging the S&P 500. In 2020, the broader market index as gained 5.3%.

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