Sherwin-Williams profit up 30% in Q4

Cleveland Sherwin-Williams Co. announced that its fourth-quarter profit rose 30% as it cut costs, but sales of its popular paint products slowed, dragging down revenue.

Chairman and CEO Christopher M. Connor said the company was "encouraged by our earnings performance in the last half of the year resulting primarily from the appropriate steps taken by our operating segments to control costs and improve efficiencies."

"We are beginning to see some stability in our sales to certain market segments, although demand in most end markets remains weak and industry-wide volume is down significantly from peak levels achieved a few years ago," he said.

For the three months that ended Dec. 31, the company earned $65.3 million, up from last year's profit of $50.2 million. Revenue slipped nearly 6% to $1.6 billion from $1.7 billion a year ago.

For the full year, Sherwin-Williams earned $435.8 million, down nearly 9% from last year's profit of $476.9 million.

Full-year revenue fell 11% to $7.09 billion.