PPG (PPG) (VAL) (APD) (DOW) (EMN) (PX) (SHW) (CE) Get New Coverage

Celanese Co. (NYSE: CE), PPG (NYSE: PPG), The Valspar Co. (NYSE: VAL), Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (NYSE: APD), The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE: DOW), Eastman Chemical Co (NYSE: EMN), Praxair, Inc. (NYSE: PX) and The Sherwin Williams Co (NYSE: SHW) getting new coverage from analysts.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on Air Products & Chemicals, Inc. (APD). They have an "Overweight" rating and a price target of $97.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on Celanese Co. (CE). They have an "Overweight" rating and a price target of $49.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on Dow Chemical Company (DOW). They have an "Equal Weight" rating and a price target of $34.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on Eastman Chemical Co. (EMN). They have an "Equal Weight" rating and a price target of $92.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on PPG (PPG). They have an "Equal Weight" rating and a price target of $85.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on Praxair, Inc. (PX). They have an "Equal Weight" rating and a price target of $105.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on the Sherwin Williams Co. (SHW). They have an "Equal Weight" rating and a price target of $81.00 on the company.

Barclays Capital initiated coverage on the Valspar Co. (VAL). They have an "Equal Weight" rating and a price target of $35.00 on the company.

Ratings on (NVDA) (PAY) (R) (SHW) (SINA) Reiterated

Ratings on shares of NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA), Verifone (NYSE: PAY), Ryder System, Inc. (NYSE: R), The Sherwin Williams Co (NYSE: SHW) and Sina (NASDAQ: SINA) were reiterated by analysts.

Deutsche Bank (NYSE:DB) reiterated a “hold” rating on NVIDIA (NVDA). They have a price target $20.00 on the company.

Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating on Verifone (PAY). They have a price target of $50.00 on the company.

Jefferies (NYSE:JEF) reiterated a “buy” rating on Ryder System, Inc. (R).

Citigroup (NYSE:C) reiterated a “hold” rating on The Sherwin Williams Co (SHW). They have a price target $87.00 on the company.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (NYSE:JPM) reiterated a “neutral” rating on Sina (SINA).

Ex-Dividend for (SHW) (SNA) (TAXI) (TLI) (TOT) is May 18

The ex-dividend date for Sherwin-Williams Company (NYSE:SHW), Snap-on Inc. (NYSE:SNA), Medallion Financial Corp (NASDAQ:TAXI), LMP Corporate Loan Fund Inc. (NYSE:TLI) and Total SA (NYSE:TOT) is May 18.

Sherwin-Williams Company (SHW) pays a dividend of $0.37 with a yield of 1.74 percent.

Snap-on Inc. (SNA) pays a dividend of $0.32 with a yield of 2.13 percent.

Medallion Financial Corp (TAXI) pays a dividend of $0.17 with a yield of 7.45 percent.

LMP Corporate Loan Fund Inc. (TLI) pays a dividend of $0.06 with a yield of 5.71 percent.

Total SA (TOT) pays a dividend of $1.34 with a yield of 4.48 percent.

Dividend Yields for (SHW) (EMN) (IFF) (ARG) (MON)

Indicated dividend yields for Standard & Poor's 500 Index companies Sherwin-Williams Co (SHW), Eastman Chemical Co (EMN), International Flavors (IFF), Airgas Inc (ARG) and Monsanto Co (MON).

These dividend data indicate dividend yields of companies in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index as of Saturday, April 30. The yield is determined by taking the latest declared dividend, annualized and divided by the price of the stock. Payout ratios are calculated based on latest quarterly dividend paid divided by earnings.

Sherwin-Williams Co (SHW) has a dividend yield of 1.77 percent on a declared dividend of $0.36. The payout ratio is 56.1 percent.

Eastman Chemical Co (EMN) has a dividend yield of 1.75 percent on a declared dividend of $0.47. The payout ratio is 18.3 percent.

International Flavors (IFF) has a dividend yield of 1.70 percent on a declared dividend of $0.27. The payout ratio is 38.8 percent.

Airgas Inc (ARG) has a dividend yield of 1.67 percent on a declared dividend of $0.29. The payout ratio is 37.7 percent.

Monsanto Co (MON) has a dividend yield of 1.65 percent on a declared dividend of $0.28. The payout ratio is 29.8 percent.

Sherwin-Williams' (NYSE:SHW) Guidance Appears Suspect

Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) no doubt had a good fourth quarter, but Ticonderoga said they were perplexed by the guidance given by Sherwin for 2011.

Ticonderoga says, "Very Solid Quarter on Virtually All Metrics; Easily Beat Us and Consensus on Both Revenues and EPS. Strong segment results bodes well moving forward. Guidance mixed with strong revenue forecasts offset by modest EPS guidance. Key to conference call will be whether raw materials are truly causing that much pain or management is sandbagging given that there is little reason to be heroic in an uncertain environment.

"Guidance Is What Is Perplexing. Great Revenue growth but modest EPS growth. Sandbagging or RM Headwinds? Revenues guided up mid-to-high teens in 1Q 2011, high-single-digit for all of 2011. We have 3.8% and 3.2%, respectively. EPS guidance is $0.48-$0.58 in 1Q, $4.65-$5.05 for full year 2011. We are at $0.57 in 1Q, while consensus is $0.47, but that has a $0.33 outlier (low 50s excluding). Our $4.92 for the full year is in the middle of range, while consensus is $5.07. Again, though, we were using much lower revenue estimates."

Ticonderoga reiterates a 'Neutral' rating on Sherwin-Williams (SHW), which closed Tuesday at $86.09, gaining $2.79, or 3.35 percent.

Sherwin-Williams' (NYSE:SHW) 2011 Dependent on Volumes, Pricing, Margins

According to Ticonderoga, the performance of Sherwin-Williams (NYSE:SHW) for the quarter and 2011 will be determined by volume, pricing and margins.

If they can hold down material costs, the company could surprise on the upside.

Ticonderoga says, "To us, this quarter’s issues look pretty straightforward: Can volumes continue recovering? Will Pricing appear, offsetting raw materials cost increases? Where are raw material costs expected to go in 2011? We believe the quarterly results for these issues and SHW overall will be solid, but not enough to move the equity significantly higher than its current near-record level.

"We do believe there is one issue investors could be pleasantly surprised about -future raw materials costs. We came away from our recent meeting at the InternationalBuilders Show (IBS) with the gut feeling that SHW may not be seeing the widely discussed 20%-30% 2011 price hikes in the key raw material TiO2. This issue is supremely important as we move through 2011, so this issue will be front and center on the call Tuesday, as will volume growth resumption. Our 4Q EPS estimate is $0.67, down 6.2% YoY and two cents ahead of consensus. We expect Revenues will climb 8.4% to $1.73B, which is below consensus of $1.79B."

Ticonderoga maintains a 'Neutral' rating on Sherwin-Williams (SHW), which closed Monday at $83.30, gaining $1.01, or 1.23 percent.