Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. Purchases 570 Shares of 3M (NYSE:MMM)

Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of 3M (NYSE:MMM) by 14.2% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 4,589 shares of the conglomerate’s stock after acquiring an additional 570 shares during the quarter. Prairie Wealth Advisors Inc.’s holdings in 3M were worth $592,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Financial Life Planners bought a new stake in shares of 3M during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $25,000. FSA Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of 3M in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of 3M by 8.6% in the third quarter. Daymark Wealth Partners LLC now owns 217,745 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $30,000 after purchasing an additional 17,211 shares during the last quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of 3M by 118.6% during the third quarter. McClarren Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 223 shares of the conglomerate’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 121 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in 3M by 44.1% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 320 shares of the conglomerate’s stock worth $41,000 after buying an additional 98 shares in the last quarter. 65.25% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on MMM. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of 3M from $160.00 to $175.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company upgraded shares of 3M from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $140.00 to $170.00 in a research note on Wednesday, January 22nd. Melius upgraded 3M from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday, October 22nd. Barclays upped their price objective on 3M from $161.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on 3M from $142.00 to $152.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 22nd. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, three have issued a hold rating and twelve have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, 3M presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $148.87.

3M Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MMM opened at $152.28 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.86, a current ratio of 1.41 and a quick ratio of 1.08. 3M has a 1 year low of $75.40 and a 1 year high of $155.00. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $136.38 and a 200-day moving average price of $132.07. The stock has a market cap of $82.92 billion, a PE ratio of 20.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.37 and a beta of 0.96.

3M (NYSE:MMM) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 21st. The conglomerate reported $1.68 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.66 by $0.02. 3M had a return on equity of 100.77% and a net margin of 15.71%. The business had revenue of $6.01 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $5.77 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $2.42 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 25.0% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts anticipate that 3M will post 7.8 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

3M Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 12th. Investors of record on Friday, February 14th will be given a dividend of $0.73 per share. This is a positive change from 3M’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.70. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $2.92 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.92%. 3M’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.09%.

Insider Activity at 3M

In other news, EVP Victoria Clarke sold 1,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.22, for a total transaction of $269,885.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 194 shares in the company, valued at $29,918.68. This trade represents a 90.02 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Theresa E. Reinseth sold 2,309 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $149.95, for a total value of $346,234.55. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer now owns 4,417 shares in the company, valued at $662,329.15. This represents a 34.33 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 113,639 shares of company stock valued at $17,163,446. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

3M Company Profile

3M Company provides diversified technology services in the United States and internationally. The company’s Safety and Industrial segment offers industrial abrasives and finishing for metalworking applications; autobody repair solutions; closure systems for personal hygiene products, masking, and packaging materials; electrical products and materials for construction and maintenance, power distribution, and electrical original equipment manufacturers; structural adhesives and tapes; respiratory, hearing, eye, and fall protection solutions; and natural and color-coated mineral granules for shingles.