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Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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In the latest trading session, Air Products and Chemicals (APD - Free Report) closed at $312.67, marking a +0.32% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.7% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.56%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 7.5%.

Heading into today, shares of the seller of gases for industrial, medical and other uses had lost 2.45% over the past month, lagging the Basic Materials sector's gain of 2.03% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.94% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Air Products and Chemicals as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be February 2, 2023. 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%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue 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.

It is also important to note the 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. Investors can capitalize on this by using the Zacks Rank. This model considers these estimate changes and provides a simple, 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 sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Air Products and Chemicals currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 27.39. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.65, so we one might conclude that Air Products and Chemicals is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that APD has a PEG ratio of 2.25 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. The Chemical - Diversified was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.25 at yesterday's closing price.

The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 212, putting it in the bottom 16% 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.

Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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