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

3M (MMM) closed at $190.88 in the latest trading session, marking a -0.23% move from the prior day. This change lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.7%. At the same time, the Dow added 0.42%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq gained 1.26%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the maker of Post-it notes, industrial coatings and ceramics had lost 5.6% over the past month. This has lagged the Conglomerates sector's loss of 4.33% and was narrower than the S&P 500's loss of 6.13% in that time.

MMM will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be January 29, 2019. On that day, MMM is projected to report earnings of $2.28 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 8.57%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $7.97 billion, down 0.22% from the year-ago period.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for MMM. Recent revisions tend to reflect the latest near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for 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.

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. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.15% lower within the past month. MMM is currently a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Digging into valuation, MMM currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 17.72. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 13.62, so we one might conclude that MMM is trading at a premium comparatively.

Also, we should mention that MMM has a PEG ratio of 1.74. 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 1.63 as of yesterday's close.

The Diversified Operations industry is part of the Conglomerates sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 96, putting it in the top 38% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank includes is listed in order from best to worst in terms of the average Zacks Rank of the individual companies within each of these sectors. 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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