Sherwin-Williams Q3 2025 Earnings: Pro Sales Strong, DIY Falters

When a giant like Sherwin-Williams, a global leader in paints and coatings, releases its financial results, it offers a snapshot of the health of both the professional contracting and consumer DIY markets. We're diving into their recently released Q3 2025 earnings report to see what the numbers tell us about the company's performance and the broader economic landscape.

Overall, Sherwin-Williams painted a picture of steady growth, with consolidated net sales rising 3.2% to $6.36 billion for the quarter compared to the same period last year. Let's look at how the different parts of the business contributed to this result.

Diverging Paths in Paint

Sherwin-Williams operates through three main business divisions, and their individual performances reveal where the company is finding its strength.

• Paint Stores Group: This is the company's largest division, catering primarily to professional painting contractors through its vast network of stores. It was the standout performer this quarter, with sales climbing 5.1% to $3.84 billion. This strong growth suggests that demand from new construction and residential repaint projects remains robust.
• Consumer Brands Group: This segment, which includes familiar brands like Valspar and Minwax sold through retail partners, faced some headwinds. Sales declined 2.6% to $770 million. This dip could indicate softer spending from do-it-yourself customers or shifts in the retail environment.
• Performance Coatings Group: Providing industrial coatings for everything from cars to cans, this segment saw a modest sales increase of 1.7% to $1.75 billion. This slight uptick points to a stable, albeit not rapidly growing, industrial sector.

The flow of revenue through the company's costs for the third quarter is visualized in the chart below.

In the diagram, you'll notice an "unallocated" segment that contributes a very small amount of revenue but has a large negative cost of revenue of approximately $1.5 billion. This isn't an operational unit but an accounting function. The negative cost figure primarily reflects the elimination of sales between Sherwin-Williams' own segments—for example, when the Consumer Brands Group sells products to the Paint Stores Group. This adjustment is necessary to avoid double-counting revenue on the consolidated statement and ensure the final numbers are accurate.

Profitability and Shareholder Returns

Despite mixed top-line results across its divisions, Sherwin-Williams demonstrated strong operational efficiency. The company's gross profit margin edged up slightly to 49.2% from 49.1% last year, indicating it is successfully managing the cost of raw materials and production.

Selling, general, and administrative (SG&A) expenses remained flat as a percentage of sales at 30.7%, showcasing disciplined cost control. This efficiency flowed down to the bottom line, with net income rising to $833.1 million, or $3.35 per diluted share, up from $806.2 million, or $3.18 per share, in the third quarter of 2024.

The company also continued to return value to its investors. During the quarter, Sherwin-Williams spent $668.2 million to repurchase 2 million of its own shares.

A Solid Foundation

Sherwin-Williams delivered a solid quarter, anchored by the impressive performance of its professional-focused Paint Stores Group. This segment's strength more than compensated for the softness in the consumer-facing business. The company's ability to maintain healthy profit margins and generate strong cash flow—over $2.3 billion from operations in the first nine months of the year—highlights its financial health.

Looking ahead, the key for Sherwin-Williams will be to navigate the differing demand signals from its various markets. While the professional painter business appears to be on solid footing, reigniting growth in the Consumer Brands Group will be a critical challenge, especially if consumer spending continues to be cautious.