By Rob Curran and Katherine Hamilton
3M reaffirmed its full-year guidance, betting that rebounding demand for industrial products and office supplies will outweigh caution from consumers.
The St. Paul, Minn., manufacturing giant struck a conservative note during Tuesday's earnings call, as executives said U.S. shoppers are remaining cautious about discretionary spending.
"Given that we are early in the year and we are operating in a volatile macro environment, we think it is prudent to keep a contingency until we have more clarity about the rest of the year," Chief Financial Officer Anurag Maheshwari said.
Earnings in the first quarter totaled $653 million, or $1.23 a share, down from $1.12 billion, or $2.04 a share, a year earlier.
Stripping out certain one-off items, such as the costs associated with settlements on its production of PFAS--per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or forever chemicals--3M logged adjusted earnings of $2.14 a share. Wall Street was forecasting $1.98 a share, according to FactSet.
Sales rose 1.3% to $6.03 billion, edging past the average Wall Street estimate of $6.01 billion, as tallied by FactSet.
"We had a good start to the year, and despite operating in a volatile environment, we remain confident in achieving our 2026 guidance," 3M Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Brown said.
Brown said 3M is experiencing macroeconomic and industry-driven softness in about 40% of its portfolio.
The company's transportation and electronics business had flat sales, which were lighter-than-expected, due to ongoing weakness in certain end markets, executives said. Electronics and auto were particularly sluggish.
In 3M's consumer-facing business, the company didn't see the recovery it had expected, and organic sales fell 1%. Consumer discretionary spending in the U.S. has also been soft, Brown said.
Management said they haven't been able to raise prices in that segment because consumers are cautious about spending, and it is trying to limit how many discounts it offers.
3M reiterated its projection for full-year adjusted earnings per share, which it expects to be $8.50 to $8.70, compared with the average analyst target of $8.65 a share.
Management said it expects consumer demand to improve throughout the year, and anticipates overall sales will start to grow more quickly as the year progresses.
3M also backed its adjusted sales-growth projection of 4% for the year. The company continues to anticipate organic sales growth, excluding acquisitions and other skew factors, of about 3%. For 2025, 3M logged adjusted sales of $24.3 billion.
3M previously projected faster revenue growth for 2026 after closing out the fourth quarter with an uptick in sales, but said tariffs weren't embedded into the outlook.
Write to Rob Curran at rob.curran@dowjones.com and Katherine Hamilton at katherine.hamilton@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 21, 2026 10:08 ET (14:08 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2026 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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