Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado Purchases 67,933 Shares of The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW)

Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado increased its position in The Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW) by 12.9% in the second quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 595,576 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock after buying an additional 67,933 shares during the quarter. Sherwin-Williams accounts for 0.7% of Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado’s portfolio, making the stock its 27th largest position. Public Employees Retirement Association of Colorado owned about 0.23% of Sherwin-Williams worth $177,738,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of SHW. Capital World Investors increased its stake in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 38.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital World Investors now owns 3,840,789 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $1,197,952,000 after buying an additional 1,075,351 shares during the period. PineStone Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 132.8% during the second quarter. PineStone Asset Management Inc. now owns 1,609,392 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $480,291,000 after buying an additional 917,979 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. increased its stake in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 610.0% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,045,374 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $311,971,000 after buying an additional 898,143 shares during the period. Jensen Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Sherwin-Williams during the second quarter valued at approximately $169,770,000. Finally, Capital International Investors increased its stake in shares of Sherwin-Williams by 17.9% during the fourth quarter. Capital International Investors now owns 2,082,971 shares of the specialty chemicals company’s stock valued at $649,706,000 after buying an additional 316,180 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.67% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently issued reports on SHW. Barclays boosted their target price on Sherwin-Williams from $315.00 to $355.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. KeyCorp boosted their target price on Sherwin-Williams from $400.00 to $410.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Robert W. Baird boosted their target price on Sherwin-Williams from $310.00 to $325.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 24th. Jefferies Financial Group upped their price target on Sherwin-Williams from $392.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, BMO Capital Markets reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $400.00 price target (up from $386.00) on shares of Sherwin-Williams in a research note on Wednesday, September 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating, fourteen have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $362.68.

Sherwin-Williams Trading Up 1.2 %

NYSE SHW opened at $379.77 on Friday. The Sherwin-Williams Company has a 12 month low of $232.06 and a 12 month high of $382.83. The stock has a market cap of $95.80 billion, a P/E ratio of 40.49, a P/E/G ratio of 2.98 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $352.62 and its 200-day moving average price is $328.03. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.50 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17.

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, July 23rd. The specialty chemicals company reported $3.70 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $3.51 by $0.19. Sherwin-Williams had a return on equity of 75.58% and a net margin of 10.92%. The firm had revenue of $6.27 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $6.33 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $3.29 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up .5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts forecast that The Sherwin-Williams Company will post 11.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Sherwin-Williams Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, September 6th. Stockholders of record on Friday, August 16th were issued a dividend of $0.715 per share. This represents a $2.86 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, August 16th. Sherwin-Williams’s payout ratio is currently 30.49%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Allen J. Mistysyn sold 14,520 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $366.83, for a total transaction of $5,326,371.60. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 63,520 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $23,301,041.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.60% of the company’s stock.

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.