Where 3M’s Q3 Report Says the Stock Price Is HeadingWritten by Thomas Hughes. Published 10/22/2025.
Key Points- 3M's recovery is underway, and its stock price will rise in 2025.
- Operational quality and cash flow drive the market, including the capital return they fuel.
- Analysts' sentiment is bullish, leading this market higher, but institutions are risky.
3M’s (NYSE: MMM) Q3 report suggests the stock is heading higher as the company’s recovery gains traction. The results indicate 3M has moved beyond many legacy issues — including litigation related to so-called "forever chemicals" — and is positioned to sustain profitable growth.
A key detail: cash flow, free cash flow and the company’s capacity for capital returns remain healthy and have improved quarter after quarter, according to the report and accompanying analysis available on MarketBeat.
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The takeaway: 3M has multiple tailwinds supporting its price action and could reach fresh long-term highs soon. A move to new highs would break the stock out of a significant trading range, setting this industrial stock up for a sustained uptrend and the potential for a new all-time high.
3M Outperforms in Q3, Raises Guidance: Shares Move Higher 3M posted a solid Q3 as growth across its three remaining business segments drove outperformance. Adjusted revenue of $6.3 billion rose 4.1% (3.2% organic), beating MarketBeat’s consensus by $50 million.
Though the top-line improvement was modest, it was amplified by margin expansion and management's guidance that momentum should continue into Q4.
3M widened adjusted operating margin by 170 basis points to 24.7%, which helped deliver adjusted EPS of $2.19 — roughly a 10% year-over-year increase, aided by share reductions. Even more important, cash flow and free cash flow remain ample to support capital returns.
Capital returns remain important to investors. Not only does 3M pay a meaningful dividend (about a 1.8% annualized yield in late October), but the company is also aggressively repurchasing shares. Q3 buyback activity equated to a 2.6% reduction on an average-quarter basis, bringing the year-to-date reduction to about 2.2%.
This former Dividend King currently pays roughly 40% of its projected current-year earnings, leaving room to raise the payout over time and potentially reclaim its former status. Since the dividend cut in early 2024, the company has announced only one increase.
3M Guidance Raise Can Sustain the Analysts Upgrade Cycle 3M’s guidance can sustain the analysts' sentiment upgrade cycle for at least another quarter. Management reaffirmed revenue targets, improved the margin-expansion outlook and narrowed the adjusted EPS range — signaling greater confidence in results well above MarketBeat's consensus.
The low end of the new guidance range is $7.95, while the consensus ahead of the release was $7.93.
Analysts' sentiment is bullish for 3M. Since litigation largely subsided in 2024, analysts have issued numerous upgrades and raised price targets over the past 12 months.
Overall, sentiment has shifted from Hold to Moderate Buy, and target prices have trended higher. While the consensus implies fair value immediately after the Q3 release, the trend points to the high end of the range — about $185, a seven-year high.
The key question is whether institutions will keep buying. Institutions own roughly 65% of the stock; they were net buyers in the first half of 2025, but buying slowed to nearly zero in Q3 and flipped to net selling in early Q4. If that trend persists, 3M is unlikely to reach new highs without another catalyst. |
