3M | Fundamental Analysis | Must Read...

Industrial giant 3M will publish its Q3 earnings on Oct. 26. As always, quarterly earnings reports help shape investor thinking, whether it's near-term or long-term. Unfortunately, 3M management isn't likely to give investors much good news regarding near-term trends, but what about the long-term outlook? Here's what you should know before the earnings report comes out.

The case for buying 3M is based on the idea that the significant free cash flow (FCF) generated by the company will give management the time and strength to turn around some of the volatile performance of recent years. Furthermore, based on that very FCF, the stock looks very favorable. If the company reaches Wall Street's consensus FCF forecast of $5.7 billion in 2021, it will trade at 18.2 times its FCF (current market capitalization is $104 billion).

That's a pretty reasonable valuation for a mature industrial business proficient in increasing revenues at a rate not exceeding a single digit (in line with economic growth). If you add some margin expansion to this, and investors can expect a mix of stable earnings growth and dividend growth (current yield is 3.3%), then 3M is an excellent value investment option.

However, the question is, where is 3M's profit margin headed? Gross profit margin (profit after cost of goods) is one of the best ways to measure a company's pricing power in the marketplace. While earnings margin before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization (EBITDA) also includes operating expenses and is a great way to measure how well a company is managed.

3M's performance has been questionable in recent years, and this is not due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In short, 3M needs to persuade investors that it can return the company to a long-term uptrend in margins. To that end, CEO Mike Roman restructured the business. The company is now managed from four operating segments rather than five, and business groups are now managed globally rather than by country. At the same time, management has undertaken restructuring expenses to streamline its operations.

Moreover, management has invested in digital capabilities. The poorly performing healthcare segment has been restructured through divestitures and acquisitions, such as the $6.7 billion purchase of Acelity, a trauma business, and M*Modal, a $1 billion health information systems business; both deals were completed in 2019.

So investors are right to sit back and say, "Show me margin expansion." But unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic has struck, and its distorting effects have made it much harder to see improvement, especially in terms of margin performance. Moreover, it is difficult to compare similar performance when the economy enters a period of downtime and resumption is impacted by soaring commodity prices and supply chain problems in key end markets.

Moreover, many of the problems associated with resumption have worsened in 2021. As a result, the critical data most investors will be watching relates to the ratio of 3M's price to its cost of production. This is a critical metric for investors because 3M management prides itself on investing in innovation to produce differentiated products - in other words, products with pricing power.

The dispute over whether 3M products are losing or gaining pricing power won't be resolved during the next earnings report, but we do know that pressure is building because of rising raw material costs and difficulties in the supply chain.

For instance, CFO Monish Patolawala projected a $0 to $0.10 decline in earnings per share at the beginning of the year due to rising raw material prices. He later raised that forecast to $0.20, then to $0.30-$0.50 in April, and then to $0.65-$0.80 in July. Moving on to the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference in mid-September, and Patolawala guided investors to the high end of the range. And that's without taking into account the impact on the supply chain of plant shutdowns during Hurricane Ida.

Patolawala also said that inflation is outpacing 3M's ability to raise prices, and noted that auto production (a key end market for 3M) will be weaker than originally expected. In addition, the health care recovery has been uneven and the number of fee-for-service procedures is below management expectations, semiconductor shortages have impacted consumer electronics, and office resumption (3M sells office supplies) has been delayed.

All point to a troubled earnings report.

Still, much of the bad news should already be priced in, so don't be surprised if 3M stock rises if management's recommendations and comments turn out not to be so bad. Still, the earnings report is unlikely to do much good for long-term investors who are looking for convincing evidence that the turnaround attempts are working. Thus, 3M is likely to remain a good value stock, but with doubts surrounding it.