The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW): BCG Matrix [Dec-2025 Updated]

You're looking for a clear map of where Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) is generating and consuming cash right now-here is the BCG Matrix as of late 2025. Honestly, the picture is sharp: The Americas Group remains the bedrock, a Cash Cow generating $13.52 billion in TTM revenue and a 24.9% profit margin, funding the high-flying Stars like Packaging Coatings that are driving that strong EPS guidance of $11.25 to $11.45. Still, we can't ignore the Dogs, like the Consumer Brands Group seeing a 2.6% sales dip, or the new Question Marks, such as the recent Suvinil buy, that demand serious capital to win share in a choppy market. Keep reading to see precisely where the next dollar should go.

Background of The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW)

You're looking to map out The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW)'s portfolio using the Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix, so we need to start with a solid foundation of what the company actually does and where it stands as of late 2025.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) is a major player in the paints and coatings industry, a business that touches everything from the paint on your living room wall to the protective coatings on industrial infrastructure. Honestly, they've been around for a long time, founded way back in 1866, giving them a deep history in the sector.

The company primarily organizes its operations into three main segments: The Americas Group, Consumer Brands Group, and Performance Coatings Group. This structure helps you see where their sales are coming from. The Americas Group is the big one, focusing on selling architectural paints and related products through their company-operated stores, which are everywhere across North and South America.

The Consumer Brands Group handles the manufacturing and distribution of products sold through third-party retailers, like big-box stores. Think of the cans you see on the shelves there; that's this segment at work. This group is key for broad market reach, even if the margins aren't always as tight as the direct-to-contractor sales.

Then there's the Performance Coatings Group, which is where the industrial side lives. This segment supplies high-performance coatings for industrial wood, packaging, coil, automotive refinish, and protective and marine applications. These are specialized, often higher-margin products where technical expertise really matters. For example, their coatings protect bridges and ships, which is a different kind of business than selling interior latex paint.

As of the latest available figures approaching late 2025, The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) has maintained a strong financial footing, often reporting annual revenues well over $20 billion in recent fiscal years. Their strategy has long centered on organic growth, strategic acquisitions-they're definitely not shy about buying up competitors-and maintaining strong pricing power, especially in their direct-to-professional channels.

The overall market for architectural coatings, which is a huge part of their business, has seen moderate growth, but the industrial and protective segments can be more cyclical, tied closely to construction starts and manufacturing output. Understanding these segment dynamics is defintely what will drive our BCG placement decisions.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) - BCG Matrix: Stars

The Star quadrant represents business units characterized by high market share in a high-growth market. For The Sherwin-Williams Company, these segments require significant investment to maintain their leading position while the market expands.

The following segments are identified as Stars based on recent performance indicators:

• - Packaging Coatings, which saw double-digit growth in Q2 2025, driven by strong global demand.
• - Protective & Marine Coatings, a high-growth niche within the Performance Coatings Group.
• - Automotive Refinish, which delivered strong results in Q3 2025, indicating high market growth and a strong position.
• - These segments are key to the company's full-year 2025 adjusted EPS guidance of $11.25 to $11.45.

Stars consume substantial cash to fuel their growth, often resulting in a near break-even cash flow situation, but they are vital for future Cash Cow status when market growth inevitably slows. The recent financial reporting confirms the strength in these areas, even amidst broader market softness.

Here is a look at the Q3 2025 performance metrics that support the Star categorization for the Performance Coatings Group (PCG) segments:

The strategy for these units involves continued investment to defend and grow market share. For instance, Protective & Marine Coatings is recognized as a leader in the development of protective coatings and linings for infrastructure, safety, and sustainability. Maintaining this leadership requires ongoing support for promotion and placement.

The company's focus on these high-growth areas is clear, as evidenced by the fact that Packaging Coatings was the strongest performer in the PCG during Q2 2025, showing double-digit growth. This aggressive investment posture is what the BCG framework suggests for Stars to ensure they mature into reliable cash generators.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) - BCG Matrix: Cash Cows

You're analyzing the core engine of The Sherwin-Williams Company's financial strength, the segment that reliably funds growth elsewhere. This is where high market share meets a mature, stable market, creating a predictable, substantial cash flow.

The segment fitting this Cash Cow profile is The Americas Group (formerly Paint Stores Group or PSG). This unit is the company's largest revenue generator and a fortress in its primary market. Its stability comes from its deep entrenchment with professional contractors, a customer base that prioritizes consistent supply and quality over chasing the lowest price.

Here are the key financial and market metrics defining this Cash Cow as of late 2025:

• - The Americas Group (formerly Paint Stores Group) posted TTM revenue of $13.52 billion as of September 2025.
• - Dominant market share, controlling nearly 60% of the North American architectural paint industry sales.
• - High profitability, evidenced by a Q3 2025 segment profit margin of 24.9%.
• - Stable, professional-contractor focused revenue stream that generates significant cash flow for investment elsewhere.

The sheer scale of this operation is clear when looking at the quarterly results. For the third quarter ending September 2025, The Americas Group registered net sales of $3,836.8 million. This segment's performance is the bedrock supporting the entire corporation, which reported a consolidated TTM revenue of $23.27 Billion USD as of November 2025.

Because this market is mature, The Sherwin-Williams Company wisely keeps promotional spending low here. The focus shifts to efficiency and infrastructure maintenance to 'milk' the maximum gain. For instance, the company returned $2.13 billion to shareholders through dividends and repurchases during the first nine months of 2025, a direct result of the reliable cash generation from these mature businesses.

The profitability metrics confirm its Cash Cow status. The 24.9% segment margin in Q3 2025 is a testament to the pricing power derived from that near-60% market share.

Here's a quick comparison of the segment's Q3 2025 performance versus the prior year:

This segment generates the necessary capital to fund the high-risk, high-reward Question Marks. The strategy here is simple: maintain the infrastructure, manage costs aggressively, and defend the market share at all costs. Any investment here is targeted at improving efficiency, like opening 80-100 new North America Paint Stores in 2025, which supports the existing professional contractor base.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) - BCG Matrix: Dogs

Dogs are units or products with a low market share and low growth rates. They frequently break even, neither earning nor consuming much cash. Dogs are generally considered cash traps because businesses have money tied up in them, even though they bring back almost nothing in return. These business units are prime candidates for divestiture.

The Consumer Brands Group (CBG) is positioned here, with a Trailing Twelve Months (TTM) revenue of $3.00 billion as of September 2025. This segment is characterized by persistent soft North American DIY demand, which caused Q3 2025 sales to decline 2.6% year-over-year. To be fair, the acquisition of BASF's Brazilian architectural paints business, Suvinil, which had sales of approximately $525 million for the year ended December 31, 2024, is expected to be integrated into CBG and immediately accelerate presence in Latin America.

You can see the recent revenue challenges in the table below:

This segment is highly sensitive to unfavorable foreign exchange, defintely in Latin America. For instance, in the second quarter of 2025, net sales in CBG saw an approximate 2% impact from unfavorable foreign currency translation driven by Latin America. This FX headwind compounds the domestic softness in DIY demand.

The low market share position of CBG is evident when comparing its scale to the core professional model. As a point of reference from 2022 data, The Americas Group generated net sales of $12.7 billion, accounting for 57% of the company's total sales, while CBG accounted for 12% of total 2022 sales. This lower growth and market share compared to the direct-to-pro model of The Americas Group places CBG firmly in the Dog quadrant, suggesting minimal cash generation relative to the capital tied up.

Key characteristics suggesting the Dog classification include:

• TTM revenue as of September 2025: $3.00 billion.
• Q3 2025 sales decline: 2.6%.
• Q2 2025 FX impact in Latin America: approximately 2%.
• Relative size: Accounted for 12% of total sales in 2022, compared to The Americas Group at 57%.

Expensive turn-around plans usually do not help. Finance: review the capital allocation plan for CBG, prioritizing divestiture readiness for non-core assets within the segment by Q1 2026.

The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) - BCG Matrix: Question Marks

You're looking at business units that are in high-growth areas but currently hold a low market share, demanding cash to fuel their climb toward Star status. These units are cash-consumptive right now, but the potential payoff in a growing market makes the investment decision critical.

The Suvinil acquisition in Brazil, finalized in October 2025, is a prime example of an aggressive play in a high-growth Latin American market. Suvinil generated approximately $525 million in sales for the year ended December 31, 2024. The immediate impact on the consolidated results is projected to be an increase in sales by a low single-digit percentage in the fourth quarter of 2025 compared to the prior year's fourth quarter. The purchase price reflected a low teens EBITDA multiple, signaling a significant outlay for future growth potential. The Sherwin-Williams Company expects to finish 2025 with a net-debt-to-EBITDA ratio within its target range of 2.0 to 2.5 times, which shows the financial commitment made to this expansion.

Within the Performance Coatings Group (PCG), certain sub-segments represent the classic Question Mark dilemma, needing immediate support to avoid becoming Dogs. For the second quarter of 2025, the entire PCG saw a slight sales decline of 0.3% to $1,801.1 million. This was driven by declines in the General Industrial and industrial wood segments, which failed to keep pace with the double-digit growth seen in Packaging. PCG segment profit fell sharply by 18.7% to $245.1 million, with the margin contracting by 310 basis points to 13.6%, illustrating the high cost of operating in these choppy demand environments where market share is not yet secured.

These units require significant investment to gain market share despite the choppy demand environment. The total consolidated net sales for The Sherwin-Williams Company are projected by analysts to reach $23.22 billion for the full year 2025. To fund the necessary growth initiatives, such as integrating Suvinil or turning around underperforming industrial lines, the company needs to manage its cash carefully. The company generated $1.05 billion in Net operating cash in the first six months of 2025, which must be allocated between dividends, share repurchases, and these high-potential, high-cash-burn Question Marks.

The strategic focus for these Question Marks centers on rapid market share capture or divestiture. Here are the key characteristics defining these units as of late 2025:

• - The Suvinil acquisition in Brazil, a new entry into a high-growth Latin American market.
• - Other industrial sub-segments within Performance Coatings Group (PCG) facing declines, like General Industrial.
• - These units require significant investment to gain market share despite the choppy demand environment.
• - They represent a low share of the total consolidated net sales, projected at $23.22 billion for FY 2025.

The path forward demands heavy investment to quickly move these assets into the Star quadrant, or a decisive exit if the required market penetration proves too costly or slow. Finance: draft 13-week cash view by Friday.