Sherwin-Williams reported third-quarter net sales of $6.86 billion, up 7.9%, beating estimates, while adjusted earnings of $3.63 a share missed expectations as higher costs weighed on profit.
Sherwin-Williams reported third-quarter 2026 net sales of $6.86 billion on Tuesday, up 7.9% from $6.36 billion a year earlier and above the $6.78 billion consensus, while adjusted earnings of $3.63 a share rose 1.1% from $3.59 but fell short of analyst expectations.
Net income on a reported basis declined 1.5% to $821 million, or $3.38 a share, up 0.9% from $3.35 a year earlier, and adjusted earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 3.3% to $1.40 billion, or 20.5% of net sales. Growth was broad-based: Paint Stores Group sales rose 4.7% to $4.02 billion with same-store sales up 3.9%, Performance Coatings Group sales increased 8.8% to $1.90 billion, and Consumer Brands Group sales climbed 21.7% to $937.4 million, helped by the Suvinil acquisition, although that segment's profit fell 7.1% to $146.2 million. The company returned $749 million to shareholders in the quarter through dividends and share repurchases.
Management attributed the margin pressure to higher raw material and supply-chain costs, acquisition-related expenses and product mix. For the full year the company set diluted net income per share guidance of $10.92 to $11.22 and narrowed adjusted diluted earnings guidance to $11.85 to $12.15, while maintaining its sales outlook of mid to high-single-digit growth and expecting fourth-quarter sales to increase by a mid-single-digit percentage from a year earlier.
The sales and earnings levels in this article match across the company's results as reported by Zacks and Kalkine, including the $6.86 billion in sales and $3.63 in adjusted earnings. One detail differed between compilers and is stated carefully here: the Zacks consensus for adjusted earnings was $3.65, while another compilation cited $3.69, so the article records that earnings missed expectations without resting the miss on a single consensus figure. The Suvinil contribution and the cost pressures are the company's own explanations for the quarter.
The quarter leaves Sherwin-Williams in a familiar position for a coatings maker in a soft housing market: selling more paint while earning less on each sale. Pricing, volume and cost control are now the variables to watch into the fourth quarter, when the company's mid-single-digit sales growth expectation will be tested against the same cost pressures that held back profit in the third quarter.