MW Why more big companies like Sherwin-Williams are talking about immigration on their earnings calls

By Victor Reklaitis

Mentions of immigration surge in quarterly earnings calls of S&P 500 companies

As President Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans in Congress take tougher stances on immigration issues than the Biden administration, there have been protests by their critics and cheers from their supporters. There also has been a surge in mentions of immigration in quarterly earnings calls of S&P 500 companies.

One company has noted the potential for increased demand for its video and radio equipment due to border-related spending in the GOP's megabill. Executives from several companies have talked about possibly having a harder time finding labor for construction projects due to builders' reliance on foreign-born workers. Other execs discussed decreased spending by Latino customers.

Below are some highlights as the word "immigration" gets mentioned more and more in the S&P 500's SPX earnings calls. As shown in the above chart that's based on FactSet data, immigration has gone from having zero mentions during some quarters a couple of years ago, to having 20 companies discuss the topic for this year's first quarter and 39 for last year's fourth quarter.

Bracing for spending on security gear

Motorola Solutions Inc. $(MSI)$ is preparing for an increase in federal-government spending on video equipment and land mobile radio (LMR) devices, said the chief operating officer for the provider of security products and services during a quarterly earnings call last month,.

The company is "keeping an eye on both the House and Senate budget bills that are being passed through," COO John Molloy said, because they should deliver a "substantial increase" in how border and immigration-control officials end up using video technology, body-worn gear and next-generation LMR communications. "I think there's going to be things like that, so we're keeping an eye on that. We've got the teams in place. We expect another very strong year with our U.S. federal government team."

Shares of Motorola Solutions jumped following last November's elections, but have since lost ground and are trading well below their November peak.

From MarketWatch's archives (November 2024): Prison stocks jump on expectations of more detentions

Expecting a benefit from less development

The self-storage industry has been dealing with oversupply concerns, so it makes sense for industry players to want less development of new storage facilities.

Immigration policy could help lead to less development, according to Extra Space Storage Inc. $(EXR.UK)$ Chief Executive Joe Margolis.

Margolis said tariffs could have an effect on commodity prices, while "immigration policy is going to have an effect on labor pricing, and I think those things will further reduce new development in the future, which is a good thing for our business." His remarks came during Extra Space Storage's earnings call in late April.

'Immigration pressures on staffing'

A number of companies talked about the potential for trouble in the labor market due to new immigration policies during their first-quarter calls, including apartment manager Equity Residential $(EQR)$, rival Mid-America Apartment Communities Inc. $(MAA)$, paint seller Sherwin-Williams Co. $(SHW)$, storage provider $Public Storage(PSA-N)$ $(PSA)$ and Builders FirstSource Inc. (BLDR), a supplier of building products.

"There's a lot of risk in development with construction costs, maybe immigration pressures on staffing, but we're being really thoughtful about that," Equity Residential CEO Mark Parrell said.

"Certainly we're keeping an eye on the immigration trends. We're frankly not seeing much of an impact on that at this point from an operating perspective. We're not seeing much of an impact either on the construction side," said Brad Hill, CEO of Mid-America Apartment Communities, also known as MAA. Hill added that it's in construction where there are likely to be effects, if there are any.

When asked by an analyst about whether Sherwin-Williams had any concerns about immigration policy, CEO Heidi Petz responded: "Your point on immigration and labor - it's not new for us that we're continuing to focus on our value proposition here, which is simply to help these crews get on and off of job sites faster. So, helping to solve for productivity is at the core of what we're trying do with this segment and all segments."

Related: Trump officials paused and then resumed immigration raids in key economic sectors. Industry leaders say they're still hopeful they can make their case.

'Softening trends among Hispanic consumers'

Keurig Dr Pepper Inc. (KDP) and Constellation Brands $(STZ)$ mentioned reduced spending by Latino consumers during their first-quarter calls.

Keurig Dr Pepper's data over the past couple of months shows "softening trends among Hispanic consumers relative to the broader population," said the beverage company's CEO, Tim Cofer. "When you dig into that, you see that manifesting both in terms of fewer trips and lower spend per trip. Having said all that, I would say that the slowdown year to date that we're seeing in the Hispanic consumer-purchase dynamic is not yet sufficient to move the needle on our enterprise trends."

"So the way I'd characterize it is, it is a watch point. I think it's contributing to the overall dampened consumer sentiment," Cofer told analysts, as he addressed a question about suppressed spending amid a lot of immigration news.

Constellation CEO Bill Newlands said his beer and wine company's Hispanic customers are reducing spending as more than half of them are "concerned relative to immigration issues and how those impact." MarketWatch covered his comments in late April.

See: Corona beer parent sees Hispanic consumers cutting back on spending, social gathering

In addition, AT&T Inc. $(T)$ CEO John Stankey mentioned immigration in talking about the telecom giant's prepaid wireless business, where customers pay in advance and can avoid checks of their credit history.

"I think the prepay market is a little bit slower than it had been. I think that's probably an artifact of some degree of immigration, but I don't know that that's economic per se. I'm not concerned about it. It's what we had expected and have been sharing with you," Stankey told analysts.

Now read: From Walmart to car washes, American companies are getting caught up in ICE raids and protests

-Victor Reklaitis

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June 25, 2025 08:00 ET (12:00 GMT)

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