Yahoo Finance Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know
In the latest trading session, Air Products and Chemicals (APD) closed at $279.65, marking a +0.94% move from the previous day. This change lagged the S&P 500's 1.76% gain on the day. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.17%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 3.03%.
Coming into today, shares of the seller of gases for industrial, medical and other uses had lost 2.61% in the past month. In that same time, the Basic Materials sector lost 7.76%, while the S&P 500 lost 5.94%.
Wall Street will be looking for positivity from Air Products and Chemicals as it approaches its next earnings report date. In that report, analysts expect Air Products and Chemicals to post earnings of $2.63 per share. This would mark year-over-year growth of 10.5%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $3.02 billion, up 2.67% from the prior-year quarter.
APD's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $11.39 per share and revenue of $13.12 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +9.41% and +3.32%, respectively.
Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Air Products and Chemicals. 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. 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 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 remained stagnant. Air Products and Chemicals is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).
Digging into valuation, Air Products and Chemicals currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 24.33. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 11.59, so we one might conclude that Air Products and Chemicals is trading at a premium comparatively.
We can also see that APD currently has a PEG ratio of 2.08. 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 Chemical - Diversified was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.08 at yesterday's closing price.
The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This industry currently has a Zacks Industry Rank of 166, which puts it in the bottom 35% 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.
Make sure to utilize Zacks.com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free report
Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. (APD) : Free Stock Analysis Report
