One-glance verdict
Within fair range
$179.58 our estimate vs market $175.65
Wall Street consensus: $219.50 (22.2% higher than our fair-value estimate)
2% below our estimate
Fundamentals snapshot
Pool Corporation
POOL · NMS · Industrials · Industrial Distribution
Current price
$175.65
52-week range
$172.68 - $336.15
Market cap
$6.38B
Balance sheet
Stretched
12.41x Strong cushion
Net debt $1.66B. Interest coverage shows how many times profit covers the interest bill.
What stands out
3 Rewards
1 Risk
3 rewards · 1 risks
- Reward Revenue grew 1.3% last year.
- Reward Returns 31.3% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
- Reward Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
- Risk Operating margin compressed from 16.6% to 15.1% over 3 years.
What this company does
Pool Corporation
Pool Corporation is the world's largest wholesale distributor of swimming pool supplies, selling everything from chemicals to heaters to pool-building and service professionals rather than directly to homeowners. Most of their business comes from essential maintenance and repair items, which creates a lot of recurring revenue (predictable, repeat sales from customers who need to keep their pools running) regardless of the economy.
How the company got here
Pool Corporation began in 1980 as a single swimming pool supply store in Louisiana called South Central Pool Supply. After being purchased by an investment firm in 1993, it was renamed SCP Pool Corporation and began expanding rapidly by buying up other distributors. The company went public in 1995, selling its stock on the open market for the first time. It officially became Pool Corporation in 2006 and is now the world's largest wholesale distributor of pool supplies, experiencing a major business surge during the COVID-19 pandemic as people invested in their homes.
What it actually does
Pool Corporation is like a giant warehouse store, but for pool professionals instead of everyday shoppers. It buys massive quantities of everything needed for a swimming pool—from chemicals and filters to pumps and tiles—and sells it to about 125,000 customers like pool builders, repair services, and specialty retail stores. The company doesn't build pools itself or sell directly to homeowners; it's the middleman that supplies the experts who do. It operates through more than 400 sales centers, primarily in North America, ensuring local pool pros can get the parts and equipment they need quickly.
Pool Maintenance and Repair
This is the company's largest and most stable business, making up well over half of its sales. It involves selling the essential, non-negotiable items that every pool owner needs regularly, such as chlorine, cleaning supplies, and replacement parts for pumps and filters. Because pool maintenance is required to keep the water safe and clean, sales in this area are very consistent. This creates a steady stream of recurring revenue (income that is predictable and likely to continue in the future) for the company, regardless of whether people are building new pools.
Pool Renovation and Upgrades
This part of the business, which accounts for roughly a quarter of sales, provides materials for giving existing pools a facelift. This includes things like new tiles, updated lighting, modern heating systems, or replacing the decorative surfaces around the pool deck. Homeowners might decide to renovate their pool to make it more energy-efficient, fix wear and tear, or simply to update its look. While not as essential as basic maintenance, this is a significant business for Pool Corporation as millions of pools age and require upgrades.
New Pool Construction
This is the smallest part of the business, contributing around 14% of the company's sales. It involves selling all the initial building materials needed to construct a brand-new pool from scratch. This includes items like concrete, plumbing components, electrical parts, and the pool structure itself, like fiberglass shells or kits for in-ground pools. This segment is more sensitive to the economy, as building a new pool is a major expense that homeowners are more likely to undertake when they feel financially confident.
Irrigation and Landscape Products
Through its Horizon Distributors brand, the company also sells products for landscaping and watering systems. This is a smaller but distinct part of the business that caters to professional landscape and irrigation contractors. The products include things like sprinkler systems, outdoor lighting, power equipment for lawn care, and even components for outdoor kitchens. This allows the company to serve contractors who work on the entire backyard, not just the pool.
What management is betting on now
The company's leadership is focused on expanding its network of sales centers to reach more customers, both by building new locations and buying smaller competitors. They are also growing their offerings in the broader "outdoor living" category, selling items like grills and outdoor kitchen components to capitalize on the trend of homeowners investing in their backyards. Additionally, management is investing in its digital tools for professional customers and aiming to sell more of its own private label products, which generally have better profit margins (the amount of profit made on each sale).
Price history
How the share price has moved
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Earnings history
Last 8 quarters — what happened
Click any quarter to read the call summary and what the numbers say.
FY2024 Q2
$8.77M
FY2024 Q3
$305.49M
FY2024 Q4
$157.04M
FY2025 Q1
$13.93M
FY2025 Q2
$-42.86M
FY2025 Q3
$266.55M
FY2025 Q4
$71.90M
FY2026 Q1
$17.15M
Revenue
$1.14B
Net income
$53.23M
Diluted EPS
1.45
Operating cash flow
$25.74M
Free cash flow
$17.15M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$982.21M
Net income
$31.59M
Diluted EPS
0.86
Operating cash flow
$80.11M
Free cash flow
$71.90M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.45B
Net income
$127.01M
Diluted EPS
3.40
Operating cash flow
$287.29M
Free cash flow
$266.55M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.78B
Net income
$194.26M
Diluted EPS
5.17
Operating cash flow
$-28.77M
Free cash flow
$-42.86M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.07B
Net income
$53.55M
Diluted EPS
1.42
Operating cash flow
$27.22M
Free cash flow
$13.93M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$987.48M
Net income
$37.30M
Diluted EPS
1.00
Operating cash flow
$170.57M
Free cash flow
$157.04M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.43B
Net income
$125.70M
Diluted EPS
3.27
Operating cash flow
$316.52M
Free cash flow
$305.49M
Fetching…
Sources
Revenue
$1.77B
Net income
$192.44M
Diluted EPS
4.99
Operating cash flow
$26.66M
Free cash flow
$8.77M
Fetching…
Sources
Is it cheap or expensive?
Fair value $179.58 vs current price $175.65
Wall Street consensus is the average analyst price target: $219.50 (22.2% higher than our fair-value estimate).
Our most-likely fair value is $179.58 a share — about 2.2% away from today's price of $175.65, so the stock currently looks fairly priced.
Is it drowning in debt?
Stretched
Net debt $1.7B. Interest coverage 12.4x.
Net debt
$1.66B
Interest coverage
12.41x
Pool Corporation's profit covers its interest bill about 12.4 times over. which is stronger than most peers shown here.
Stretched
Worse cushion
Baseline
Better cushion
POOL
BASELINE
Pool Corporation
Total debt $1.70B Interest coverage 12.41x This is the baseline the peer rows are being compared against.
Total debt $1.13B Interest coverage 6.80x -45% vs POOL Carries about 1.8x less debt cushion than POOL.
Total debt $535.27M Interest coverage 140.77x +1,035% vs POOL Carries about 11.3x more debt cushion than POOL.
Total debt $2.45B Interest coverage 6.02x -51% vs POOL Carries about 2.1x less debt cushion than POOL.
Total debt $441.50M Interest coverage 267.05x +2,053% vs POOL Carries about 21.5x more debt cushion than POOL.
Total debt $2.80B Interest coverage 30.80x +148% vs POOL Carries about 2.5x more debt cushion than POOL.
What you should know
The case for and against POOL
3 Rewards
1 Risk
Rewards
-
Revenue grew 1.3% last year.
-
Returns 31.3% on equity, ahead of 50% of its peers.
-
Free cash flow was positive in 10/10 years.
Risks
-
Operating margin compressed from 16.6% to 15.1% over 3 years.
The numbers
All the key metrics, grouped by purpose
Tap any ? icon to learn what it means.
Valuation
How expensive the stock looks
P/E (TTM)
16.13x
Forward P/E
14.86x
P/B
5.07x
P/S
1.18x
EV/EBITDA
12.64x
PEG ratio
1.60x
Profitability
How much profit each dollar creates
Gross margin
29.6%
Operating margin
15.1%
Net margin
7.4%
ROE
31.3%
ROA
9.9%
Health
Liquidity and balance-sheet strength
Debt / equity
1.35x
Current ratio
2.67x
Quick ratio
0.86x
Total debt
$1.70B
Total cash
$35.03M
Growth
How the business has been compounding
Revenue TTM
$5.36B
Revenue 5Y CAGR
-0.0%
EPS TTM
10.89
EPS 5Y CAGR
-16.6%
Cash flow
How much cash the business throws off
Operating CF TTM
$364.37M
Free CF TTM
$309.52M
FCF margin
5.8%
Dividend
Shareholder payout
Yield
2.9%
Payout ratio
46.4%
Last ex-div date
2026-08-13