Will 3M Earnings See a Pandemic Boost?

3M Co. (NYSE: MMM | MMM Price Prediction) is scheduled to report its most recent quarterly results before the markets open on Tuesday. Analysts are looking for $2.03 in earnings per share (EPS) and $7.91 billion in revenue for the first quarter. The same period of last year reportedly had EPS of $2.23 on $8.02 billion in revenue.

This company has been a major player in the fight against the coronavirus. In fact, the U.S. enacted the Defense Production Act (DPA) to require 3M to prioritize orders from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for its N95 respirators.

In this collaboration with the current administration, 3M has increased the number of respirators it imports from overseas operations into the United States. Earlier this month, the company secured approval from China to export to the United States 10 million N95 respirators manufactured by 3M in China.

The White House also requested that 3M cease exporting respirators that it currently manufactures in the United States to the Canadian and Latin American markets.

We can look for a further update on this in the coming report on Tuesday morning.

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Excluding Monday’s move, 3M stock had underperformed the S&P 500 and Dow Jones industrial average, with shares down nearly 17% year to date. In the past 52 weeks, the share price was down closer to 23%.

Here’s what a few analysts had to say ahead of the report:

• Langenberg has a Buy rating with a $180 price target.
• Deutsche Bank rates it a Hold with a $158 price target.
• Citigroup has a Neutral rating and a $146 price target.
• RBC’s Hold rating comes with a $143 target price.
• Goldman Sachs has a Neutral rating and a $159 target.

3M stock traded up on Monday about 3% to $151.88, in a 52-week range of $114.04 to $192.19. The consensus price target is $146.47.

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