3M Co. (MMM)

An incredible conglomerate of products and therefore a great representation of the overall market. It doesn’t deviate very much from the market trends. You can probably expect this to perform like the industrial sector on a go forward basis. It tends to weaken over the next few months into October. He would be looking to exit this position at this time.

Chart shows this has formed a kind of tabletop at around $163 from the beginning of the year. If it dropped below $152, it would suggest that we are probably getting into the $130 range. The fact that it is making a basic pattern is very positive. MACD is starting to turn over a little bit, so that may be saying that there could be a little bit more weakness. The long-term chart looks beautiful. There is nothing in the technicals that would indicate any change.

An industrial conglomerate which does everything from postage to Scotch tape. Innovation is really their growth catalyst. They produce 20 products, on average, a year and a 3^rd of their revenue comes from products that are less than 5 years old. They are still continuing to expand aggressively. They are issuing $3-$5 billion of debt this year, looking to putting it to work for growth. Stock has continued to run up. If you own, it is a good time to take some money off the table, just because of its valuation. Historical PE is around 12X, and is currently trading at close to double that.

A wonderful company, but priced to perfection. This is a favourite among industrial portfolio managers. It tends to be early cycle material, so as you see an uptick in the economy, this stock tends to do very well early on, but we are beyond that.

US Economy is the best economy in the developed world. It is an innovation company as well as a GDP company. His industrials are mostly in GE-N.

It broke out, but if it came back to test the bottom and then it held, he would go into it.

Has done well, particularly in the last year. This is a very large global company, and some would argue that it is too big to grow. They took on some debt to buy back stock. Fairly expensive at this level. If you own, consider taking some profits.

This is a perfect stock to rotate into. As a bull market matures, what you want to do at the backend of the market is to pick up the deep cyclicals, and this is one of them. He would favour this. No top insight for the stock.

Doesn't see a huge amount of upside in a company like this. It is a stable business and has done okay in the past, because there has been a flight to steadier, stable businesses. People are going to make their money in the more cyclical names, such as financials, industrials, technologies, and to a lesser degree the material/energy companies.

Are going to take on more debt to buy back stock and make acquisitions.

Amongst the most profitable and consistently has the best organic growth of the diversified industrials. Have signalled they are going to go to a more aggressive cash payout, so put through a huge dividend increase this past fall. Because of the growth in the business, he feels the outlook for dividend growth continues to be very attractive.

Likes this company, but there are lots of industrials that he prefers such as General Electric (GE-N).

Industrial sector right now is probably the best performing sector. This company fits right in there and is slowly working its way higher. Broad-based geographic exposure, with the US having only about 35% of the business. Very diversified base of products. About a 2% dividend.

Had a little bit of difficulty. Seem to have been 1 step forward and 2 steps back over the last several years. This has happened to a lot of the industrial conglomerates because the global economy has not been steady. Over the last couple of quarters they have got it together a little bit and most of their divisions are moving in concert and doing fairly well. Doesn’t feel it is overpriced at 14X earnings. Decent dividend.

So well diversified that it is like the US GDP. His Outlook for the US economic growth is good so this would be a reasonable stock to own.