Royal Bank Of Canada Cuts Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) Price Target to $376.00

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) had its price objective trimmed by Royal Bank Of Canada from $390.00 to $376.00 in a research report released on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an outperform rating on the specialty chemicals company’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft downgraded Sherwin-Williams from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and set a $380.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Thursday, January 22nd. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Sherwin-Williams in a research note on Monday, December 29th. Vertical Research upgraded shares of Sherwin-Williams from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $371.00 price target for the company in a research report on Wednesday, January 7th. Mizuho raised their price objective on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 17th. Finally, UBS Group set a $420.00 price objective on shares of Sherwin-Williams in a research report on Friday, January 30th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, four have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $387.21.

Sherwin-Williams Price Performance

Sherwin-Williams stock opened at $303.25 on Thursday. Sherwin-Williams has a 52 week low of $301.58 and a 52 week high of $379.65. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $349.53 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $342.58. The stock has a market cap of $75.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.63 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.53, a current ratio of 0.87 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.03.

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) last released its earnings results on Thursday, January 29th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.23 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.16 by $0.07. The company had revenue of $5.60 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $5.57 billion. Sherwin-Williams had a return on equity of 65.26% and a net margin of 10.90%.Sherwin-Williams’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $2.09 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that Sherwin-Williams will post 12 earnings per share for the current year.

Sherwin-Williams Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, March 13th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 2nd were paid a $0.80 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Monday, March 2nd. This is a boost from Sherwin-Williams’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. This represents a $3.20 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. Sherwin-Williams’s dividend payout ratio is presently 31.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Sherwin-Williams

In other news, SVP Bryan J. Young sold 2,513 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $364.47, for a total transaction of $915,913.11. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president owned 10,045 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,661,101.15. This represents a 20.01% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Colin M. Davie sold 2,976 shares of Sherwin-Williams stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $359.50, for a total value of $1,069,872.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 5,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,928,717.50. This trade represents a 35.68% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 0.60% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Sherwin-Williams

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of SHW. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in Sherwin-Williams by 2.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 23,237,824 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $7,529,752,000 after buying an additional 600,119 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in Sherwin-Williams by 2.4% during the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 15,638,974 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $5,067,497,000 after acquiring an additional 364,832 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,231,615 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,687,498,000 after acquiring an additional 37,145 shares in the last quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main boosted its holdings in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 9.9% in the second quarter. DZ BANK AG Deutsche Zentral Genossenschafts Bank Frankfurt am Main now owns 3,887,808 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $1,334,918,000 after acquiring an additional 351,453 shares during the period. Finally, Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Sherwin-Williams in the second quarter worth $1,296,565,000. Institutional investors own 77.67% of the company’s stock.

Sherwin-Williams Company Profile

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE: SHW) is a global manufacturer and distributor of paints, coatings and related products. Founded in 1866 and headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, the company supplies a broad range of coatings for residential, commercial and industrial applications. Its product offering includes architectural paints and stains, industrial and protective coatings, automotive finishes, and a variety of sundry products such as primers, sealants and specialty treatments used by professionals and consumers.

The company sells through multiple channels, including a large network of company-operated retail paint stores that serve professional contractors and do-it-yourself consumers, as well as through distributors and mass retailers.