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3M (MMM) Ascends While Market Falls: Some Facts to Note

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3M (MMM - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $108.17, moving +0.35% from the previous trading session. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.34%. Meanwhile, the Dow experienced a rise of 0.03%, and the technology-dominated Nasdaq saw a decrease of 0.56%.

The maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics's shares have seen an increase of 4.86% over the last month, surpassing the Conglomerates sector's gain of 3.72% and the S&P 500's gain of 2.56%.

The upcoming earnings release of 3M will be of great interest to investors. On that day, 3M is projected to report earnings of $2.32 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 1.75%. Simultaneously, our latest consensus estimate expects the revenue to be $7.68 billion, showing a 4.99% drop compared to the year-ago quarter.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for 3M should also be noted by investors. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest 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. 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, spanning from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), boasts an impressive track record of outperformance, audited externally, with #1 ranked stocks yielding an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the last 30 days, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained unchanged. At present, 3M boasts a Zacks Rank of #2 (Buy).

In terms of valuation, 3M is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 10.87. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 15.61, so one might conclude that 3M is trading at a discount comparatively.

Investors should also note that MMM has a PEG ratio of 1.48 right now. This metric is used similarly to the famous P/E ratio, but the PEG ratio also takes into account the stock's expected earnings growth rate. The average PEG ratio for the Diversified Operations industry stood at 2.24 at the close of the market yesterday.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 26, which puts it in the top 11% 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.

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


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