3M Company (MMM) is scheduled to report its fourth-quarter 2014 results before the opening bell on Jan 27. In the last reported quarter, quarterly earnings beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate by a couple of cents. Let’s see how things are shaping up for this announcement.

Earnings Whispers

Our proven model does not conclusively show that 3M will beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate in this quarter. This is because a stock needs to have both a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), #2 (Buy) or #3 (Hold) for this to happen. This is not the case here as you will see below.

Negative Zacks ESP: This is because the Most Accurate estimate stands at $1.77 while the Zacks Consensus Estimate is higher at $1.80. This equates to a negative ESP of -1.67%.

Zacks Rank: 3M’s Zacks Rank #3, when combined with -1.67% ESP, makes surprise prediction difficult. Note that stocks with Zacks Rank #1, #2 and #3 have a significantly higher chance of beating earnings.

We caution against stocks with Zacks Ranks #4 and #5 (Sell-rated stocks) going into the earnings announcement, especially when the company is seeing negative estimate revisions.

Other Stocks to Consider

Here are some companies you may want to consider as our model shows they have the right combination of elements to post an earnings beat in the imminent future.

Arch Capital Group Ltd. (ACGL), earnings ESP of +1.92% and a Zacks Rank #1.

Century Aluminum Co. (CENX), earnings ESP of +7.81% and a Zacks Rank #1.

Horsehead Holding Corp. (ZINC), earnings ESP of +8.33% and a Zacks Rank #3.