3M Surges on Spinoff Plans, Cuts FY Sales Forecast on Macro and Dollar Headwinds

By Senad Karaahmetovic

Shares of 3M Co (NYSE:MMM) are up over 7% in premarket Tuesday after the company announced it will spin off its healthcare unit.

As far as results are concerned, 3M delivered an adjusted EPS of $2.48 on revenue of $8.7 billion, which compares to the consensus that called for EPS of $2.44 on revenue of $8.63 billion.

However, the Q2 beat wasn’t enough to stop the company from cutting its revenue forecast for the full year, citing the strong US dollar and macro uncertainty.

3M now sees FY sales between -0.5% to -2.5%, worse than the prior guidance of +1% to +4%. An adjusted EPS is seen between $10.30 to $10.80, worse than the prior guidance of $10.75 to $11.25, and somewhere in line with the estimate of $10.56.

"The decision to spin off our health care business will result in two well-capitalized, world-class companies, well positioned to pursue their respective priorities," 3M Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Mike Roman said.

The process is expected to be completed by the end of 2023.

In a separate announcement, 3M said its Aearo Technologies unit had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy proceedings. 3M had set aside $1 billion to fund the process of resolving all claims.

The aim is to “achieve an efficient and equitable resolution, reduce uncertainty and increase clarity for all stakeholders, while reducing the cost and time that could otherwise be required to litigate thousands of cases”.

A Goldman Sachs analyst weighed in on the Health Care business spin-off and combat arms liability actions announcements.

“The expected leverage of 3-3.5x implies ~$8-$10bn in debt, which MMM could ultimately use to help solidify its balance sheet particularly given pending litigation in combat arms and PFAS. We believe the combat arms liability actions will be viewed positively though the efficacy will be determined over time,” he told clients in a note.

A Wolfe Research analyst commented that “the Healthcare spin is a debate that has been noodling in the background for some time”.

“[The spin-off] is a strategy to ring-fence this business from the legal liabilities that dominate sentiment. This is a stable, low-growth, profitable business. We need to do more work on the right comp set, but it appears that this is a business that would likely trade at a ~market multiple, i.e. 4-5x ahead of core MMM. The limiting issues are really the high leverage that is being put on the business (3-3.5x EBITDA) and the potential for this business to retain some of the liabilities. Clearly, the decision to load the Healthcare B/S is some acknowledgement of the need for cash at 3M parent,” the analyst wrote in a research note to clients.