Verus Capital Partners LLC Trims Holdings in The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW)

Verus Capital Partners LLC reduced its stake in shares of The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) by 9.4% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 1,139 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after selling 118 shares during the period. Verus Capital Partners LLC’s holdings in Sherwin-Williams were worth $387,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in SHW. FMR LLC boosted its position in Sherwin-Williams by 18.2% in the 3rd quarter. FMR LLC now owns 6,482,662 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,474,238,000 after buying an additional 999,164 shares during the period. Proficio Capital Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 41,520.8% during the fourth quarter. Proficio Capital Partners LLC now owns 479,472 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $162,987,000 after acquiring an additional 478,320 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC raised its stake in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 1,717.9% during the third quarter. Mizuho Securities USA LLC now owns 326,903 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $124,769,000 after acquiring an additional 308,921 shares in the last quarter. Canoe Financial LP boosted its holdings in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 542.0% in the fourth quarter. Canoe Financial LP now owns 339,707 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $115,477,000 after purchasing an additional 286,791 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. grew its stake in Sherwin-Williams by 47.5% in the fourth quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. now owns 864,558 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock worth $293,889,000 after purchasing an additional 278,242 shares in the last quarter. 77.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

SHW has been the subject of several research reports. Zelman & Associates upgraded Sherwin-Williams to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Friday, January 17th. Evercore ISI upped their price objective on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $400.00 to $420.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 7th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $370.00 to $390.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Robert W. Baird set a $370.00 price target on shares of Sherwin-Williams in a report on Friday, January 31st. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of Sherwin-Williams from $450.00 to $405.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, January 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have issued a hold rating, eleven have given a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $403.31.

Sherwin-Williams Stock Up 2.0 %

Shares of SHW stock opened at $362.46 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $351.26 and its 200 day moving average price is $365.65. The Sherwin-Williams Company has a 1-year low of $282.09 and a 1-year high of $400.42. The company has a market cap of $91.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 34.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.22. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.46.

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.09 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.02. Sherwin-Williams had a return on equity of 74.50% and a net margin of 11.61%. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.81 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that The Sherwin-Williams Company will post 12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sherwin-Williams Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, March 14th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.79 per share. This is a positive change from Sherwin-Williams’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.72. The ex-dividend date is Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $3.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.87%. Sherwin-Williams’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.95%.

Sherwin-Williams Profile

The Sherwin-Williams Company engages in the development, manufacture, distribution, and sale of paints, coating, and related products to professional, industrial, commercial, and retail customers. It operates through three segments: Paint Stores Group, Consumer Brands Group, and Performance Coatings Group.