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3M (MMM) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know

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3M (MMM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $102.78, moving -0.4% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.57% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 0.43%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 0.33%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had lost 6.37% over the past month. This has lagged the Conglomerates sector's gain of 0.58% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.72% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from 3M as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, 3M is projected to report earnings of $1.59 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 40%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $7.47 billion, down 15.36% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $8.65 per share and revenue of $31.86 billion. These totals would mark changes of -14.36% and -6.91%, respectively, from last year.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for 3M. 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.

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.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.03% higher within the past month. 3M is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, 3M is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 11.93. This represents a discount compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 17.33.

Investors should also note that MMM has a PEG ratio of 1.26 right now. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Diversified Operations was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.47 at yesterday's closing price.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 83, putting it in the top 33% 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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