3M Co. (MMM)

All Comments on MMM

  • commenter
    BEN52184
    Jul 24 12:18 AM
    Earnings Preview: 3M Company [view article]
    JS has no clue. this is one of the most diversified companys out there and in one year their stock will be at $100 or more. Reply
  • commenter
    jsmith4367
    Jul 23 09:45 PM
    Earnings Preview: 3M Company [view article]
    this company is a disaster - their lcd business is in free fall Reply
  • commenter
    User 231796
    Jul 23 08:25 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    I agree with your assessment that it's deeply under-valued. I don't agree that the 16X multiple is normal. Since 1997, the average P/E for MMM has been 24X. The market has paid down the P/E on MMM since 2003, when it was at 28X. More importantly, MMM generates alot more operational cash than reported earnings. ROE consistently stays in the 15-25% range. They have committed to a minimum 10% annual earnings growth rate, acquisition appears to be the bread and butter of this plan. Any conservative intrinsic value formula, inputting Armeggedon assumptions, still values MMM at $100 today. Throw in 60% earnings from overseas and I think MMM is safer than mothers milk for the long term investor. Reply
  • commenter
    Football
    Geek
    Jul 23 07:23 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    Good Article
    I own THI, and GE
    So GE missed a quarter, who cares. They will provide long
    term investors with buckets full of dividends, and growth. Reading
    last night that green energy will be bigger than the internet in
    about a decade. Wind power dos'nt burn coal, and the US will
    eat it up to stave off being tied to the middle east. Boone Pickins
    and his billions invested into wind farms in Texas. When a oil
    man looks to green energy, watch out!
    "Tim's" is a small cap, and we know that the group has the
    most potential for growth. They are moving into the US at
    a moderate pace. In Canada they have a wide moat, as
    buffit likes to say. Go ahead and bet against these two
    companies, it's your loss.
    Cheers     Reply
  • commenter
    Larry
    Bellehumeur
    Jul 23 06:34 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    Thanks everyone for your great comments...

    User 138602, I know EnCana quite well actually (they are one of my largest customers, as I sell communications equipment to them). I like them at this price, but suspect that they will fall another 10% or so during the "shoulder" season (time between the heat of the summer and the cold of the winter). They are much more Natural Gas focused, so they tend to trade a bit with that commodity. Their recent venture into Refining, and their Oil Sands efforts have them minutely affected by the cost of Crude. I would recommend picking them up before they split into two separate companies (Oil / Refining and Natural Gas).

    They are extremely prudent, and should be very shareholder friendly in the future. I suspect that you won't see booming results any time soon, though, San Fran. An alternate play in the CDN Large cap Oil and Gas space would be Canadian Natural Resources (CNQ). They are about to launch their Oil Sands efforts later in 2008.....They are also a large customer of mine. As for CNR (Railroad), they are very exposed to "North and South" trade. This means that their main shipments are from Canada to destinations in the US. In a way, you can think of them as a proxy for the US Economy, as they tend to ship items like Auto parts and Retail sales to the US. If you are looking for more exposure to Commodities (such as Grain, Potash and Coal), you might want to look at CP Rail (CPR) trading in Toronto, as it is more of an "East-West" play (they ship a lot of items to China/India). As for TransCanada, they are a good play, but not a huge growth play. Great for yield, and they may have among the most steady earnings on the planet, as most of their revenue is regulated.

    Disclosure -- Long on TRP, None on CNR, CNQ or CP.

    As for GE, it definitely is a bit of a contrarian play at this stage, Humble, that is for sure. However, I'm thinking that the Financial part of their company will right the ship soon enough, and in the meantime, their Industrial sector should keep them moving....

    Love the comments, everyone....

    Larry     Reply
  • commenter
    humble62
    Jul 23 06:10 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    Dear Larry:
    I agree with your comment on GE except for one thing which seems to be the reason why some investors don't like it too much. They should spin off the media and possibly also the financial business. Someone said the sum of parts is worth more. Its only comparable competitor, Siemens, has outperformed GE since 1996, and this, despite of all the recent scandals. You tell me when they break up and I'll become a buyer.
    Regards.     Reply
  • commenter
    David White
    Jul 23 10:57 AM
    This Week's Key Earnings Reports [view article]
    I should have pointed out that the current PE (46) and FPE (10) are likely to decrease considerably with the earnings announcement. The PE should move to the mid 30's range. If you add in the predicted earnings for the following quarter (3 months from now), the PE would go down to the low 20's. At this point you should begin to see that the stock is not that outrageously priced currently. It has a long way it can move up. Reply
  • commenter
    David White
    Jul 23 10:51 AM
    This Week's Key Earnings Reports [view article]
    POT definitely seems like a great option play through earnings, especially since it is down drastically today. Oil and grain futures have been down so far today. Plus there is the potential strike at POT of the steelworkers. Even with all this, POT ought to beat on earnings. It seems extremely likely to guide higher with the recent price increase by Canpotex (+21% on potash prices). Even with oil and grain prices currently going down, this seems like a great play. Plus the geoploitical situation in Iran is very much in play with regard to oil after Secretary Rice's recent comments. The hoped for success in negotiations is clearly not going to occur. If anything Iran has more forcefully denied that they have any intention of changing their nuclear strategy. The market seems to be letting this news slip off the front burner for a while. But that will almost certainly be a very short while. POT should go up on earnings. Plus even though the recent bumper crop announcements are though likely to curb grain prices, it is not clear that they will have any effect on the currently planned fertilizer prices (or demand). It is also not clear that next year's crops will be as good as this year's even with lots of fertilizer. Again demand is likely to rise going into next year. Reply
  • commenter
    RightinSanFr
    ancisco
    Jul 23 09:16 AM
    My Website
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    With Buffet's "buy what you understand" philosophy, we in the States are at least 45 degrees off when it comes to investing in Canadian companies. I like Canadian National Railroad (CNI) and Transcanada Pipeline (TRP), but have kept away from pure energy companies, even though I know that to be fertile territory for the long term. Is ECA the best?
    Agree on GE. Imelt has greatly improved earnings and strategic positioning. The market has not yet followed. It will.     Reply
  • commenter
    worthy
    Jul 23 08:28 AM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    Larry,

    Excellent! If only the analysts would use your grandmother's wisdom in their work...

    Worthy     Reply
  • commenter
    User 138602
    Jul 23 08:26 AM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    hello Larry,thanks for dipping your toes in the mud and I hope you ll repeat the experience with other oversold stocks. We own GE ,just lately and don t mind to wait because of the nice dividend and I have been watching MMM for the last month and hoping to see my target price of $65 to come soon which would give us a nice 3%dividend (I just love dividends). I was told by my broker to buy ECA about 9 months ago and didn t act on it since I already owned CHK.
    but Larry since the price of oil and natural gas is coming down and to take advantage of it what entry point would you wait for ? I really want to buy it and would really like to share your thought on that with us on ECA.
    tipalia     Reply
  • commenter
    Larry
    Bellehumeur
    Jul 22 08:54 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    Thanks for your comments...

    Owen -- I do agree that THI's traditional PE might be somewhat difficult to maintain. However, its strong franchise, strong defensiveness and strong margins do deserve to be valued more than most, even if its growth rate is not "market-shatterin... It differs from our friends at Starbucks in two important ways. Tim's tends to be "less trendy" and tends to get more Blue-collar workers in its base. They tend to be more consistent in their buying, even in bad times. As well, while their coffee is not dirt cheap, their offering tends to be a lot less than the $5 Mocha lattes from Starbucks, making it less of a discretionary buy.

    One negative is also their relative newness to the market, having been spun out of Wendy's, so you don't get the long-term horizons to look back on.

    Michael -- sometimes the market does really give you gifts, as long as you are patient. Really tough to lose money in the market when you buy good companies at good prices, and show value. Thanks for reading!     Reply
  • commenter
    MichaelinWa
    Jul 22 05:04 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    As new do-it-yourself investor I like your post here. I agree that there is value out there, and you gave some nice, straight forward example. Reading your take on things helps me feel like I'm not misreading some of the stocks that seem priced low now. I think patience will be required for some of them to move up, is all. Reply
  • commenter
    Owen
    Jul 22 03:25 PM
    Four Long-Term Winners Selling at Deep Discounts [view article]
    Good article! I'm a Graham-and-Dodd man myself, so it's good to see some serious fundamental analysis. However, not sure whether THI will be able to maintain a P/E of 20. This is the same reasoning that made analysts two years ago forecast SBUX at $50 based on a "traditional forward P/E of 35". High P/Es make sense when a business has room for many years of above-market expansion, but once the business matures and gets closer to saturating its market, these P/E shrink very quickly to where you'd expect them based on the standard discounted cash flow model.
     Reply
  • commenter
    Tenbern
    Jul 22 11:01 AM
    Investing in Dividend Paying Companies [view article]
    Good info, thanks
    Reply
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