3M (MMM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

In the latest trading session, 3M (MMM) closed at $180.92, marking a +0.25% move from the previous day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.7%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.29%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.04%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had gained 7.07% over the past month, outpacing the Conglomerates sector's gain of 5.17% and the S&P 500's gain of 4.38% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MMM as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.10, down 9.09% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $8.12 billion, up 2.25% from the year-ago period.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for MMM. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. To benefit from this, we have developed the Zacks Rank, a proprietary model which takes these estimate changes into account and provides an actionable rating system.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.39% higher. MMM currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MMM has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.71 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 16.56, so we one might conclude that MMM is trading at a premium comparatively.

We can also see that MMM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.97. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Diversified Operations industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 2.02 as of yesterday's close.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 213, putting it in the bottom 17% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.

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