3M stock reaches all-time high: $99.67

3M stock reaches all-time high: $99.67
Excerpt:

3M Co.'s stock reached an all-time high Wednesday as investors awaited fourth-quarter results due Thursday. The Maplewood-based conglomerate struck $99.67 a share by midafternoon Wednesday before closing at $99.49. The stock has climbed 16 percent in the last year, silencing naysayers who worried that economic woes abroad could thwart a surge in the company's share price. Instead, analysts said investors were impressed that 3M recently reset earnings expectations to more reasonable levels. As a result, many are now looking ahead and betting on more achievable results for the second half of 2013. Others believe 3M could benefit from the weakening U.S. dollar, which typically makes prices of U.S. products cheaper abroad, analysts said. 3M, the $30 billion maker of Scotch tape, Post-it Notes, respirators, adhesives and thousands of other products, generates about 66 percent of its sales outside the United States. The last time 3M's stock traded near $100 a share was in July 2011, when it hit $97.97 a share. The recent bullrun in price comes despite 3M's restrained guidance reports over the last few months.

Comment: I think it is because my daughter works there!

Buckley: Obama "Robin Hood-esque ... anti-business"

3M chief warns Obama over business regulation

Excerpt:

“I judge people by their feet, not their mouth,” he told the Financial Times. “We know what his instincts are – they are Robin Hood-esque. He is anti-business.”

Comment: Full article is very good

3M's CEO George Buckley: Early out?

Is Buckley ready to retire from 3M?

Excerpt:

3M Co. chairman and CEO George Buckley has told the company's board of directors that he would like to retire early, according to Bloomberg. Buckley was named CEO in December 2005 and his current contract runs until he turns 65 in February 2012.

The news service, citing three unnamed sources, said the board is evaluating three top executives to succeed Buckley at the Maplewood-based giant.

3M spokeswoman Jacqueline Berry declined to comment. She said Buckley was traveling and unavailable for comment.

The three internal candidates are Inge Thulin, executive vice president of international relations, Bradley Sauer, executive vice president of health care and Jean Lobey, executive vice president of the safety, security and protection services business, Bloomberg reported.

All three men have spent their entire careers with 3M, though Sauer spent a few years with Imation Corp. after 3M spun it off in 1996. Sauer, 51, is from Minneapolis, and joined 3M after graduating from the University of Minnesota with a degree in mechanical engineering in 1981. Thulin, 57, first joined 3M in his native Sweden in 1979 and spent most of his career there and in Europe with the company. He has headed the international operations wince 2003.

Lobey, 58, is from Algeria and joined 3M in 1976 after studying economics and marketing in Paris. He has worked with the company in Europe, the Middle East and Brazil and took on his current role in 2005.

Buckley took the reins of the company after James McNerney left to become CEO at Boeing Co. The two men are the only outsiders to run the company in its 108-year history.

Comment: 3M (MMM) is one of my best stocks. Daughter works there. I think she should be the next CEO!