3M Q2 2026: adjusted EPS up 11%, full-year guidance raised
3M's second quarter looked better than the headline GAAP numbers suggest: adjusted EPS of $2.40 beat the $2.2677 consensus and management raised full-year adjusted EPS guidance to $8.80 to $8.95. The catch is that GAAP EPS of $1.78 carries $0.62 of special items, and reported sales grew only 2.4% even as adjusted organic growth reached 5.4%. Read this as an operating improvement story, not a clean earnings story.
1 · Expected vs. Actual
Free preview belowGAAP EPS was $1.78, up 33% year-on-year, and adjusted EPS was $2.40, up 11% and ahead of the $2.2677 consensus estimate. The gap is $0.62 per share of special items: a $0.61 loss on business divestitures, $0.44 of litigation and PFAS costs, $0.15 of transformation costs, $0.02 of acquisition costs, partly offset by $0.60 from the change in value of the Solventum ownership stake. GAAP operating margin fell 290 basis points to 15.1%, while adjusted operating margin rose 40 basis points to 24.9%.
Revenue of $6.50 billion rose 2.4% from $6.34 billion a year ago, while adjusted organic sales grew 5.4%. Safety and Industrial did the heavy lifting at $3.09 billion, and the Consumer segment shrank, with total sales down 1.8% and organic sales down 2.1%. China stood out with total sales up 13.9%.
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Figures on this page come from the company's original SEC filings. The analysis is generated automatically and checked against validation rules, but may still contain errors or omissions. Not investment advice. · Generated 2026-09-17
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