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Bear Of The Day: Pool Corp (POOL)

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Pool Corp (POOL - Free Report) is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) even after the company beat the Zacks Consensus Estimate when the last reported on July 25 of this year.  You might have guessed it from the name of the company, but they do indeed sell swimming pools and other related products. This article will look at why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) as it is the Bear of the Day.

Description

Pool Corp. engages in the wholesale distribution of swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products. It also offers non-discretionary pool maintenance products such as chemicals and replacement parts, discretionary products like packaged pool kits, whole goods, irrigation, and landscape products, including a complete line of commercial and residential irrigation products and parts, power equipment for the professional landscape market, specialty products such as outdoor lighting, grills, and outdoor kitchen components, and golf irrigation and water management products. The company was founded in 1993 and is headquartered in Covington, LA.

Earnings History

When I look at a stock, the first thing I do is look to see if the company is beating the number.  This tells me right away where the market’s expectations have been for the company and how management has communicated to the market.  A stock that consistently beats has management communicating expectations to Wall Street that can be achieved.  That is what you want to see.

In the case of Pool Corp , I see three beats and one miss of the Zacks Consensus Estimate over the last year. The most recent quarter was a beat with the company posting $4.98 when the consensus was calling for $4.90.  This alone does not make the stock a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) and it doesn’t make it a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell) either.

The Zacks Rank does care about the earnings history, but it is much more heavily influenced by the movement of earnings estimates.

Earnings Estimates

The Zacks Rank tells us which stocks are seeing earnings estimates move higher or in this case lower.  For POOL I see annual estimates moving lower of late.

The current fiscal year consensus number moved lower from $11.44 to $11.11 over the last 60 days. 

The next year has moved from $13.33 to $12.03 over the last 60 days.

Negative movement in earnings estimates like that is why this stock is a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).

It should be noted that a lot of stocks in the Zacks universe are seeing negative earnings estimate revisions.  That means that the stocks that are seeing small but negative earnings estimate revisions are falling to a Zacks Rank #5 (Strong Sell).


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