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Pool (POOL) guidance and outlook
Pool (POOL) lowered its guidance on Oct 22, 2026: EPS −$1.00 for FY2026; EPS −$1.00 for FY2026. Pool's 10-Q filed Jul 29, 2026 makes 17 forward-looking statements.
Guidance and outlook
Latest guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2026 | −$1.00 | lowered |
| EPS | FY2026 | −$1.00 | reaffirmed |
From the earnings release filed Oct 22, 2026 (8-K on EDGAR).
Forward-looking statements, 10-Q filed Jul 29, 2026
- For a detailed discussion of trends impacting us through 2025, see the “Current Trends and Outlook” section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis included in Part II, Item 7 of our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K.
- We expect sales for the full year of 2026 to increase by a low single-digit percentage compared to 2025.
- We project gross margin for the full year of 2026 to be approximately 30 basis points below our 2025 gross margin of 29.7%.
- We expect our gross margin to be negatively impacted by higher inbound freight cost in the current year, partially offset by benefits from effective supply chain management, advantageous pricing strategies and increased private label sales.
- We expect to leverage our existing infrastructure and strategically manage discretionary spending while providing for a modest recovery in incentive compensation compared to the prior year.
- We project operating expenses for 2026 will increase approximately 3% compared to 2025, or 2% to 3% without the $8.3 million of CEO transition costs.
- For 2026, we project diluted EPS in the range of $10.66 to $10.96, or $10.87 to $11.17, excluding the impact of CEO transition costs and including the impact of year-to-date tax GAAP benefits of $0.02.
- We have not included any expected tax benefits in our full year guidance beyond what we have recognized as of June 30, 2026.
- During 2026, we expect to continue to use cash for the payment of cash dividends as and when declared by our Board of Directors (Board) and to fund opportunistic share repurchases at our discretion.
- We also exclude consolidated sales centers when we do not expect to maintain the majority of the existing business and existing sales centers that are consolidated with acquired sales centers.
- We expect that our quarterly results of operations will continue to fluctuate depending on the timing and amount of revenue contributed by new and acquired sales centers.
- Based on management’s current plans, we project capital expenditures for 2026 will be approximately 1.0% to 1.5% of net sales.
Pool's latest quarter
Pool, Q3 2026: revenue $1.5B (+4% year over year), operating margin 11.4%, net earnings $123M, operating cash flow $421M. The chart follows the revenue to costs, profit and cash.
Questions
Did Pool raise or lower its guidance?
Pool (POOL) lowered its guidance on Oct 22, 2026: EPS −$1.00 for FY2026; EPS −$1.00 for FY2026.
What does Pool expect?
For a detailed discussion of trends impacting us through 2025, see the “Current Trends and Outlook” section of Management’s Discussion and Analysis included in Part II, Item 7 of our 2025 Annual Report on Form 10-K. We expect sales for the full year of 2026 to increase by a low single-digit percentage compared to 2025. We project gross margin for the full year of 2026 to be approximately 30 basis points below our 2025 gross margin of 29.7%.
Updated Nov 8, 2026. Read automatically from SEC filings and public data; errors are possible. Not investment advice.