| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 15, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
| ||||||||
 | ||||||||
| BUSINESSWEEK INVESTOR -- INSIDE WALL STREET
Brightening Up at Sherwin-Williams? Ask Sherwin-Williams (SHW)? Not lately, at least as far as Wall Street is concerned. The Big Board-traded company, a big name in paint, has been limping along at about $23, after hitting $31 in May. As a low-tech company, ''it's definitely off the radar screen,'' says U.S. Trust portfolio manager David Tillson. Still, Tillson has been accumulating Sherwin shares recently, in a wager that the company will soon emerge from its current funk. The Street is down on Sherwin for several reasons. For one thing, Tillson notes, the company is coping with an ''overall perception that the Sherwin-Williams business may not survive in the age of the big box''--that is, the big megastores such as Home Depot. The company relies largely on sales through small retail outlets and is a major supplier of paint to professionals. Also exerting downward pull on the stock is the industry's possible exposure to lawsuits stemming from their sales of lead-based paint many years ago. Still, Tillson believes Sherwin-Williams is a screaming buy. At its recent p-e of about 11, the company is trading at about a 60% discount to the market's p-e. By contrast, it sold at a 10% discount to the market's p-e throughout the 1980s and '90s. Tillson thinks the market is unfairly penalizing the Cleveland company and that it has a decent chance of climbing back to the 30s in the year ahead. By GARY WEISS _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
|  |
 | |
RELATED ITEMS Brightening Up at Sherwin-Williams? CHART: Dribbling Down INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
