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Pool Corporation (NASDAQ:POOL) came out with its yearly results last week, and we wanted to see how the business is performing and what industry forecasters think of the company following this report. It was a credible result overall, with revenues of US$5.3b and statutory earnings per share of US$11.30 both in line with analyst estimates, showing that Pool is executing in line with expectations. This is an important time for investors, as they can track a company's performance in its report, look at what experts are forecasting for next year, and see if there has been any change to expectations for the business. Readers will be glad to know we've aggregated the latest statutory forecasts to see whether the analysts have changed their mind on Pool after the latest results.
Check out our latest analysis for Pool
Taking into account the latest results, Pool's ten analysts currently expect revenues in 2025 to be US$5.39b, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Statutory per share are forecast to be US$11.38, approximately in line with the last 12 months. Yet prior to the latest earnings, the analysts had been anticipated revenues of US$5.47b and earnings per share (EPS) of US$11.95 in 2025. The analysts seem to have become a little more negative on the business after the latest results, given the minor downgrade to their earnings per share numbers for next year.
It might be a surprise to learn that the consensus price target was broadly unchanged at US$363, with the analysts clearly implying that the forecast decline in earnings is not expected to have much of an impact on valuation. That's not the only conclusion we can draw from this data however, as some investors also like to consider the spread in estimates when evaluating analyst price targets. The most optimistic Pool analyst has a price target of US$390 per share, while the most pessimistic values it at US$325. Even so, with a relatively close grouping of estimates, it looks like the analysts are quite confident in their valuations, suggesting Pool is an easy business to forecast or the the analysts are all using similar assumptions.
Looking at the bigger picture now, one of the ways we can make sense of these forecasts is to see how they measure up against both past performance and industry growth estimates. It's pretty clear that there is an expectation that Pool's revenue growth will slow down substantially, with revenues to the end of 2025 expected to display 1.4% growth on an annualised basis. This is compared to a historical growth rate of 9.6% over the past five years. Compare this against other companies (with analyst forecasts) in the industry, which are in aggregate expected to see revenue growth of 3.4% annually. So it's pretty clear that, while revenue growth is expected to slow down, the wider industry is also expected to grow faster than Pool.