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

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3M (MMM - Free Report) closed at $174.01 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.29% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 0.29% gain on the day. Elsewhere, the Dow gained 0.26%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added 0.22%.

Coming into today, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had gained 9.04% in the past month. In that same time, the Conglomerates sector gained 8.18%, while the S&P 500 gained 7.86%.

Investors will be hoping for strength from MMM as it approaches its next earnings release, which is expected to be July 25, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $2.04, down 21.24% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $8.04 billion, down 4.18% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $9.31 per share and revenue of $32.24 billion. These totals would mark changes of -10.99% and -1.6%, respectively, from last year.

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. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.11% lower. MMM is holding a Zacks Rank of #4 (Sell) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that MMM has a Forward P/E ratio of 18.74 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 17.23, so we one might conclude that MMM is trading at a premium comparatively.

It is also worth noting that MMM currently has a PEG ratio of 1.84. 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 Diversified Operations industry currently had an average PEG ratio of 1.87 as of yesterday's close.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 97, which puts it in the top 38% 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.

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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