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Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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Air Products and Chemicals (APD - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $225.20, moving +1.45% from the previous trading session. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.92% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.15%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.12%.

Coming into today, shares of the seller of gases for industrial, medical and other uses had lost 5.58% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 20.12%, while the S&P 500 gained 1.54%.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Air Products and Chemicals as it approaches its next earnings report date. This is expected to be August 4, 2022. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.61, up 12.99% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $3.08 billion, up 18.12% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $10.26 per share and revenue of $12.07 billion. These totals would mark changes of +13.75% and +16.93%, respectively, from last year.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Air Products and Chemicals. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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 ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell). It has a remarkable, outside-audited track record of success, with #1 stocks delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.06% lower. Air Products and Chemicals is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, Air Products and Chemicals currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 21.64. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 8.85, which means Air Products and Chemicals is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that APD currently has a PEG ratio of 1.69. 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 0.97 as of yesterday's close.

The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 186, which puts it in the bottom 27% 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.

To follow APD in the coming trading sessions, be sure to utilize Zacks.com.


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