Is the business good?
How good a business is MMM?
3M earns 29% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so the business is worth more the bigger it gets.
29%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 20 points above what the capital costs: growth creates value
- Operating margin
- 18%
Operating margin · Conglomerates median 12% · 12 months to Q2 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.33×
Cash conversion · −0.50× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- −3.4%
Share count, year on year · bought back, each share owns more of the company
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | 22% |
| FY2021 | 21% |
| FY2022 | 17% |
| FY2023 | −43% |
| FY2024 | 20% |
| FY2025 | 19% |
Details›
- Gross margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 39%
- Operating margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 18%
- Net margin12 months to Q2 2026
- 12%
- Free cash flow margin
- 16%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $25.2B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $3.98B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $3.00B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 29%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.