3M Boosts Annual Outlook Following Strong First Quarter

By Ezequiel Minaya 

3M Co. on Tuesday said it raised its full-year profit outlook as first-quarter results beat Wall Street expectations, boosted by growth in its core industrial unit and a resurgent electronics business.

The St. Paul, Minn., company said it now expects earnings on a per-share basis between $8.70 and $9.05, up from a prior forecast of $8.45 to $8.80.

The company also projected local-currency sales growth to be between 2% and 5%, up from a previous range of 1% to 3%.

Shares of the company rose 2.2% premarket to $198.40.

The maker of consumer and industrial products such as Post-it Notes and Scotch tape and industrial adhesives said sales in its industrial segment, the company's largest by revenue, increased 4.2% to $2.71 billion.

Sales in its previously struggling electronics segment, which makes components for everything from smartphone screens to components for wind and solar power generation, climbed 11% during the quarter.

Over all for the quarter, 3M reported a profit of $1.32 billion, or $2.16 a share, up from $1.28 billion, or $2.05, a year earlier. Revenue rose 3.7% to $7.69 billion.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had forecast earnings of $2.06 on $7.47 billion in revenue.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 25, 2017 08:35 ET (12:35 GMT)

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