SHW vs. ECL, IFF, CE, RPM, ALB, NEU, ASH, BCPC, FUL, and SXT
Should you be buying Sherwin-Williams stock or one of its competitors? The main competitors of Sherwin-Williams include Ecolab (ECL), International Flavors & Fragrances (IFF), Celanese (CE), RPM International (RPM), Albemarle (ALB), NewMarket (NEU), Ashland (ASH), Balchem (BCPC), H.B. Fuller (FUL), and Sensient Technologies (SXT). These companies are all part of the "specialty chemicals" industry.
Ecolab (NYSE:ECL) and Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) are both large-cap basic materials companies, but which is the superior business? We will contrast the two businesses based on the strength of their community ranking, institutional ownership, dividends, risk, earnings, analyst recommendations, media sentiment, valuation and profitability.
Sherwin-Williams received 138 more outperform votes than Ecolab when rated by MarketBeat users. However, 64.78% of users gave Ecolab an outperform vote while only 64.30% of users gave Sherwin-Williams an outperform vote.
Ecolab pays an annual dividend of $2.28 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Sherwin-Williams pays an annual dividend of $2.86 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.0%. Ecolab pays out 42.2% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Sherwin-Williams pays out 30.5% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. Both companies have healthy payout ratios and should be able to cover their dividend payments with earnings for the next several years. Sherwin-Williams has raised its dividend for 1 consecutive years. Sherwin-Williams is clearly the better dividend stock, given its higher yield and longer track record of dividend growth.
Ecolab has a beta of 1.12, suggesting that its share price is 12% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sherwin-Williams has a beta of 1.17, suggesting that its share price is 17% more volatile than the S&P 500.
Sherwin-Williams has a net margin of 10.52% compared to Sherwin-Williams' net margin of 10.01%. Ecolab's return on equity of 73.74% beat Sherwin-Williams' return on equity.
Sherwin-Williams has higher revenue and earnings than Ecolab. Sherwin-Williams is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than Ecolab, indicating that it is currently the more affordable of the two stocks.
74.9% of Ecolab shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 77.7% of Sherwin-Williams shares are owned by institutional investors. 0.5% of Ecolab shares are owned by company insiders. Comparatively, 0.6% of Sherwin-Williams shares are owned by company insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.
In the previous week, Ecolab had 1 more articles in the media than Sherwin-Williams. MarketBeat recorded 11 mentions for Ecolab and 10 mentions for Sherwin-Williams. Ecolab's average media sentiment score of 1.66 beat Sherwin-Williams' score of 1.23 indicating that Sherwin-Williams is being referred to more favorably in the news media.
Ecolab currently has a consensus price target of $239.56, indicating a potential upside of 0.16%. Sherwin-Williams has a consensus price target of $344.41, indicating a potential upside of 17.97%. Given Ecolab's stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts plainly believe Sherwin-Williams is more favorable than Ecolab.
Summary
Sherwin-Williams beats Ecolab on 17 of the 21 factors compared between the two stocks.
Get Sherwin-Williams News Delivered to You Automatically
Sign up to receive the latest news and ratings for SHW and its competitors with MarketBeat's FREE daily newsletter.
This chart shows the number of new MarketBeat users adding SHW and its top 5 competitors to their watchlist. Each company is represented with a line over a 90 day period.
This chart shows the average media sentiment of NYSE and its competitors over the past 90 days as caculated by MarketBeat. The averaged score is equivalent to the following: Very Negative Sentiment <= -1.5, Negative Sentiment > -1.5 and <= -0.5, Neutral Sentiment > -0.5 and < 0.5, Positive Sentiment >= 0.5 and < 1.5, and Very Positive Sentiment >= 1.5.
Sherwin-Williams Competitors List
Related Companies and Tools
