Multi-industry industrial 3M (NYSE: MMM) and West Coast railroad Union Pacific (NYSE: UNP) have underperformed the S&P 500 over the last three and five years. One form of value investing argues that buying the laggard in a peer group often makes sense. The idea is the company has an opportunity to play catch-up with its peers in terms of operational metrics and, in doing so, release a significant amount of value for investors.