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Why Dow Inc. (DOW) Outpaced the Stock Market Today

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Dow Inc. (DOW - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $29.39, moving +2.94% from the previous trading session. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.09%.

Coming into today, shares of the materials science had lost 3.15% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector gained 4.01%, while the S&P 500 gained 7.21%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of Dow Inc. in its upcoming release. The company's earnings per share (EPS) are projected to be $0, reflecting a 100% decrease from the same quarter last year. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $10.39 billion, down 4.84% from the prior-year quarter.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $0.42 per share and revenue of $41.71 billion. These totals would mark changes of -75.44% and -2.91%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also pay attention to any latest changes in analyst estimates for Dow Inc. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research suggests that these changes in estimates have a direct relationship with upcoming stock price performance. 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, ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), possesses a remarkable history of outdoing, externally audited, with #1 stocks returning an average annual gain of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has shifted 36.12% downward. Right now, Dow Inc. possesses a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell).

Investors should also note Dow Inc.'s current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 68.22. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 14.38, so one might conclude that Dow Inc. is trading at a premium comparatively.

Investors should also note that DOW has a PEG ratio of 7.8 right now. 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 Chemical - Diversified industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.84 as of yesterday's close.

The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 187, putting it in the bottom 24% 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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