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3M (MMM) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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3M (MMM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $159.67, moving +1.23% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.9% gain on the day. At the same time, the Dow added 2.05%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.75%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from MMM as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, MMM is projected to report earnings of $1.71 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 22.27%. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $7 billion, down 14.35% from the year-ago period.

MMM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $7.92 per share and revenue of $30.43 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of -12.97% and -5.32%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for MMM should also be noted by investors. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-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. 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.

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 remained stagnant within the past month. MMM is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note MMM's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 19.92. This represents a no noticeable deviation compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 19.92.

Investors should also note that MMM has a PEG ratio of 2.1 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 Diversified Operations industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 3.04 as of yesterday's close.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 179, which puts it in the bottom 30% 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.

You can find more information on all of these metrics, and much more, on Zacks.com.


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