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

3M (MMM) closed the most recent trading day at $178.06, moving +0.54% from the previous trading session. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.31%. Elsewhere, the Dow lost 0.39%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq lost 2.7%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had gained 1.19% over the past month, lagging the Conglomerates sector's gain of 1.82% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.32% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from MMM as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect MMM to post earnings of $2.29 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 6.02%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $8.47 billion, up 4.95% from the year-ago period.

For the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates are projecting earnings of $9.56 per share and revenue of $34.35 billion, which would represent changes of +9.38% and +6.72%, respectively, from the prior year.

Any recent changes to analyst estimates for MMM should also be noted by investors. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Research indicates that these estimate revisions are directly correlated with near-term share price momentum. 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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.25% lower. MMM currently has a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Investors should also note MMM's current valuation metrics, including its Forward P/E ratio of 18.53. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 20.57, 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 1.95. 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. MMM's industry 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 105, which puts 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.

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


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