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Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Dips More Than Broader Markets: What You Should Know

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Air Products and Chemicals (APD - Free Report) closed at $283.88 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.48% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.25%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.24%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 1.88%.

Coming into today, shares of the seller of gases for industrial, medical and other uses had lost 2.11% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 2.72%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.48%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Air Products and Chemicals as it approaches its next earnings report date. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.63, up 10.5% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.02 billion, up 2.67% from the prior-year quarter.

APD's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $11.39 per share and revenue of $13.12 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.41% and +3.32%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for Air Products and Chemicals. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. 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. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate remained stagnant within the past month. Air Products and Chemicals currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that Air Products and Chemicals has a Forward P/E ratio of 25.06 right now. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 13.84.

Investors should also note that APD has a PEG ratio of 2.15 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 Chemical - Diversified was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.15 at yesterday's closing price.

The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 197, putting it in the bottom 22% 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.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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