Barings LLC Purchases 328 Shares of The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW)

Barings LLC boosted its position in The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) by 1.7% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 19,599 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after acquiring an additional 328 shares during the period. Barings LLC’s holdings in Sherwin-Williams were worth $6,662,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Merit Financial Group LLC raised its stake in Sherwin-Williams by 80.0% in the 4th quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 1,177 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $400,000 after acquiring an additional 523 shares during the period. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV raised its stake in Sherwin-Williams by 13.0% in the 3rd quarter. Nations Financial Group Inc. IA ADV now owns 1,818 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $694,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the period. Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its stake in Sherwin-Williams by 52.6% in the 4th quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 6,680 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $2,271,000 after acquiring an additional 2,303 shares during the period. Burney Co. raised its stake in Sherwin-Williams by 4.6% in the 4th quarter. Burney Co. now owns 17,272 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $5,871,000 after acquiring an additional 766 shares during the period. Finally, Kerusso Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 75.9% during the fourth quarter. Kerusso Capital Management LLC now owns 10,290 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $3,498,000 after buying an additional 4,439 shares during the period. 77.67% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on SHW shares. Royal Bank of Canada decreased their price target on Sherwin-Williams from $438.00 to $415.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on Sherwin-Williams from $450.00 to $405.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 28th. Berenberg Bank upgraded Sherwin-Williams from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the company from $321.00 to $420.00 in a research report on Friday, January 24th. Mizuho decreased their price target on Sherwin-Williams from $435.00 to $408.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, January 7th. Finally, StockNews.com cut Sherwin-Williams from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, November 28th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have given a hold rating, eleven have assigned a buy rating and two have given a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Sherwin-Williams presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $403.31.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Sherwin-Williams news, insider Colin M. Davie sold 2,799 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, February 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $360.30, for a total value of $1,008,479.70. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 5,365 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,933,009.50. This represents a 34.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.60% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Sherwin-Williams Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of SHW opened at $363.99 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $91.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.50, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.23. The stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $352.70 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $365.93. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.02, a current ratio of 0.79 and a quick ratio of 0.46. The Sherwin-Williams Company has a 1 year low of $282.09 and a 1 year high of $400.42.

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, January 30th. The specialty chemicals company reported $2.09 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 period last year, the company earned $1.81 earnings per share. On average, analysts forecast that The Sherwin-Williams Company will post 12 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sherwin-Williams Increases Dividend

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