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

In the latest trading session, 3M (MMM) closed at $170.73, marking a +0.41% move from the previous day. The stock outpaced the S&P 500's daily loss of 1.18%. Meanwhile, the Dow lost 1.34%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, lost 0.92%.

Heading into today, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had lost 6.56% over the past month, lagging the Conglomerates sector's loss of 3.14% and the S&P 500's loss of 0.73% in that time.

Wall Street will be looking for positivity from 3M as it approaches its next earnings report date. On that day, 3M is projected to report earnings of $2.07 per share, which would represent a year-over-year decline of 13.03%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $8.66 billion, up 0.88% from the prior-year quarter.

MMM's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $9.87 per share and revenue of $35.35 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +12.93% and +9.83%, respectively.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for 3M. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about 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.

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. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.13% higher. 3M is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that 3M has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.23 right now. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 18.14, which means 3M is trading at a discount to the group.

Also, we should mention that MMM has a PEG ratio of 1.81. The PEG ratio is similar to the widely-used P/E ratio, but this metric also takes the company's expected earnings growth rate into account. The Diversified Operations was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.72 at yesterday's closing price.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 100, which puts it in the top 40% 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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