3M Cuts Earnings Outlook Amid Flat Sales

By Ezequiel Minaya 

3M Co. cut the top end of its yearly earnings forecast as it posted nearly flat sales for its latest quarter, pressured by a 7.4% slide in revenue for its electronics and energy segment.

Shares slipped 1.6% premarket to $168.61 as 3M said it expected per-share earnings to be between $8.15 and $8.20, compared with the previous estimate of $8.15 to $8.30. 3M also trimmed its expectations for organic local-currency sales growth to be roughly flat compared with previous projections of no growth to a 1% climb.

Still, earnings beat Wall Street expectations by a penny and sales met projections.

The St. Paul, Minn.-based company has posted weaker sales results recently amid slowing demand in some markets, including materials used in consumer electronics, such as adhesives and films that go into screens for computers, tablets and phones.

Over all for the latest quarter, 3M reported a profit of $1.33 billion, or $2.15 a share, compared with $1.30 billion, or $2.05 a share, a year earlier. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected $2.14 a share. Sales were essentially flat at $7.71 billion, meeting analysts' expectations.

In the latest quarter, sales in the electronics and energy segment fell 7.4% to $1.29 billion. Industrial segment sales edged up 1% to $2.58 billion. Safety and graphics climbed 2.2% to $1.45 billion. The consumer arm posted a revenue increase of 4% to $1.21 billion.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 25, 2016 08:40 ET (12:40 GMT)

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