The Case for Buying 3M Stock Is Perplexing
It isn't easy to know where to start with 3M's (NYSE: MMM) fourth-quarter earnings and full-year 2024 guidance. With the disappointing sales performance, the weak sales guidance, the margin outlook disappointment, or the earnings and cash flow guidance that leaves the company looking like an outstanding value stock? There's a lot to unpack here.
The industrial stock is down nearly 30% over the last decade and slightly more than 50% over the last five years. One of the reasons for this can be seen in the chart below. It's a disappointing track record of meeting its own organic sales growth, and it happened again in 2023, with full-year organic growth coming in with a 3.2% decline. This is after CEO Mike Roman reminded investors on Dec. 5 that management had previously guided toward the low end of the full-year range and it would come in at "about approximately minus 3%."
It's just a slight miss, and in a challenging year for its end markets, but this is not the first time management has disappointed investors this way.
Source Fool.com
