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Wall Street found its inner cheerleader
3M has spent the past year basically treading water, which is a rude little plot twist for a company with a cabinet full of brands you probably touch every day. But heading into earnings, the Street is leaning bullish: JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs, and Jefferies all nudged their views higher, with price targets clustered around the stock’s current upside.
Why the optimism?
The clean version is that analysts think 3M is finally starting to look less like a repair job and more like a functioning business again. JPMorgan’s Chigusa Katoku pointed to stronger AI and datacenter-related demand rippling into parts of the economy that 3M serves, along with short-cycle indicators that are still holding up.
The turnaround story is doing the heavy lifting
That matters because 3M isn’t just a ticker, it’s a full-on corporate redemption arc. William Brown has been trying to clean up years of messes, from the $12.5 billion forever-chemicals settlement to the $6 billion earplug settlement. In the meantime, the company is pushing its “3M Excellence” operating plan, trying to fatten margins and speed up innovation like it’s training for the business Olympics.
Earnings are the next reality check
The company is expected to report Tuesday, and Wall Street is looking for second-quarter revenue growth of about 4% to $6.4 billion. If the numbers show the turnaround is actually sticking, the stock could keep grinding higher. If not? Well, Wall Street love letters have a way of getting short-lived.
Big picture: 3M doesn’t need perfection here — it just needs enough proof that the reset is real and not just another PowerPoint promise.