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

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3M (MMM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $196.75, moving +0.14% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.41%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had gained 5.15% in the past month. In that same time, the Conglomerates sector gained 7.88%, while the S&P 500 gained 5.07%.

MMM will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect MMM to post earnings of $2.25 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 4.17%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.42 billion, up 4.23% from the prior-year quarter.

MMM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $9.53 per share and revenue of $34.35 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.04% and +6.72%, respectively.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for MMM should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. 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. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.3% lower. MMM is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

In terms of valuation, MMM is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 20.63. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 21.19, so we one might conclude that MMM is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that MMM currently has a PEG ratio of 2.17. 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 was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.91 at yesterday's closing price.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 106, putting it in the top 42% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual 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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