3M Beefs Up Office Supplies Division (Update 1)

Updated from 10:19 a.m. ET with analyst comment and the latest stock prices.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- 3M (MMM) Tuesday agreed to acquire Avery Dennison's (AVY) office and consumer products division for $550 million in cash.

The Avery Dennison business includes brands such as Hi-Liters as well as products such as labels, presentation products and organizational items, among other things. The office and consumer products division's 2011 sales were estimated to be $765 million with earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $95 million.

The acquisition is slated to be completed in the second half of 2012. 3M expects the deal to reduce its earnings by 6 cents a share for the first 12 months after the acquisition closes.

The average estimate of analysts polled by Thomson Reuters is for earnings of $6.31 a share from 3M in fiscal 2012 on revenue of $30.59 billion.

"This acquisition complements our global business, which includes our iconic Post-it and Scotch brands, and will allow us to better serve our customers with accelerated product innovation," said Bill Smith, vice president of 3M's office supplies division, in a statement Tuesday.

Shares of 3M rose 2.5% to $83.80 in late trades, while Avery Dennison's stock tacked on 3% to $29.53.

Though the size of the deal is too small for Barclays Capital analyst Scott Davis to change his equal-weight rating on 3M, he is encouraged by the acquisition.

"Deals like this give us hope that 3M understands that there are more ways to create shareholder value than internally generated top-line growth," Davis wrote.

But this deal will really mean something if "it is a step in the process of 3M reinventing itself to shareholders," he said.

Davis' price target for 3M shares is $95.

Interested in more on 3M? See TheStreet Ratings' report card for this stock.

--Written by Alexandra Zendrian in New York.



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