Air Products and Chemicals (APD) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Air Products and Chemicals (APD) closed at $234.97 in the latest trading session, marking a +1.82% move from the prior day. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 1.97%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 1.88%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.25%.

Prior to today's trading, shares of the seller of gases for industrial, medical and other uses had lost 9.81% over the past month. This has was narrower than the Basic Materials sector's loss of 13.23% and the S&P 500's loss of 9.93% in that time.

Air Products and Chemicals will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release. On that day, Air Products and Chemicals is projected to report earnings of $2.78 per share, which would represent year-over-year growth of 10.76%. Our most recent consensus estimate is calling for quarterly revenue of $3.29 billion, up 15.89% from the year-ago period.

APD's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $10.29 per share and revenue of $12.28 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of +14.08% and +18.98%, respectively.

Investors might also notice recent changes to analyst estimates for Air Products and Chemicals. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As such, positive estimate revisions reflect analyst optimism about the company's business and profitability.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. 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. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection has moved 0.02% lower. Air Products and Chemicals is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

In terms of valuation, Air Products and Chemicals is currently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 22.43. This valuation marks a premium compared to its industry's average Forward P/E of 8.29.

Also, we should mention that APD has a PEG ratio of 1.58. 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. The Chemical - Diversified was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.24 at yesterday's closing price.

The Chemical - Diversified industry is part of the Basic Materials sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 168, putting it in the bottom 34% 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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