Albemarle Corporation (ALB) vs The Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW)

Albemarle Corporation and The Sherwin-Williams Company are both Specialty Chemicals companies. The Sherwin-Williams Company is the larger, with a market value of $78.1B against $12.9B — 6.1× the size. The Sherwin-Williams Company trades at the lower P/E: 30.0× against 229×. Albemarle Corporation grew revenue faster over the last twelve months: 18.3% against 5.76%. The Sherwin-Williams Company has the higher net margin (11.0% vs 0.97%) and the higher return on invested capital (16.0% vs 1.46%). Both pay a dividend; Albemarle Corporation yields more (1.41% vs 0.90%). Across the 23 metrics below, Albemarle Corporation leads on 13 and The Sherwin-Williams Company on 10.

Valuation

Metric ALB SHW Specialty Chemicals median
P/E 228.60 30.03 24.83
P/S 2.19 3.29 1.46
P/B 1.56 20.82 1.76
Price to free cash flow 9.58 24.85 19.84
EV/EBITDA 12.27 18.98 13.18
EV/Sales 2.23 3.77 1.84
Earnings yield 0.44% 3.33% 2.11%
Free cash flow yield 10.44% 4.02% 2.29%

Profitability

Metric ALB SHW Specialty Chemicals median
Gross margin 23.81% 48.98% 29.23%
Operating margin 4.27% 16.43% 3.63%
Net margin 0.97% 11.01% 2.89%
Free cash flow margin 22.87% 13.23% 3.78%
Return on equity 0.69% 65.12% 3.62%
Return on assets 0.35% 10.28% 0.35%
Return on invested capital 1.46% 16.03% 2.75%

Growth

Metric ALB SHW Specialty Chemicals median
Revenue growth (TTM) 18.32% 5.76% 4.51%
EPS growth (last fiscal year) 48.57% (2.75%) —
Revenue growth, 5-year CAGR 10.45% 5.12% 6.30%
Net income growth, 5-year CAGR 0.00% 4.81% 0.00%

Health

Metric ALB SHW Specialty Chemicals median
Debt to equity 0.18 3.13 0.54
Current ratio 2.09 0.73 1.94
Net debt to EBITDA 3.33 2.31 2.03

Dividend

Metric ALB SHW Specialty Chemicals median
Dividend yield 1.41% 0.90% 1.69%
Payout ratio 0.05 0.27 0.25

Size

Metric ALB SHW Specialty Chemicals median
Market cap 12.90b 78.05b 2.43b

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