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Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Gains As Market Dips: What You Should Know

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Air Products and Chemicals (APD - Free Report) closed at $312.20 in the latest trading session, marking a +0.05% move from the prior day. This move outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.41%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.11%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 6.67%.

Coming into today, shares of the seller of gases for industrial, medical and other uses had gained 2.49% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 1.25%, while the S&P 500 lost 4.4%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Air Products and Chemicals as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, Air Products and Chemicals is projected to report earnings of $2.72 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 7.94%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.29 billion, up 9.96% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $11.38 per share and revenue of $13.21 billion, which would represent changes of +9.32% and +4.06%, respectively, from the prior year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Air Products and Chemicals. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Based on our research, we believe these estimate revisions are directly related to near-team stock moves. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Air Products and Chemicals is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Air Products and Chemicals has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.42 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 9.9, which means Air Products and Chemicals is trading at a premium to the group.

Investors should also note that APD has a PEG ratio of 2.26 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. Chemical - Diversified stocks are, on average, holding a PEG ratio of 1.94 based on yesterday's closing prices.

The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 173, which puts it in the bottom 32% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

To follow APD in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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