Narrowed adjusted EPS guidance to $5.30-$5.40, raised low end by 5 cents.
Pentair reported a solid Q1 with 3% sales growth and 100bps margin expansion. Management raised the low end of EPS guidance but maintained sales guidance, citing pool channel destocking risks and softer international demand. Core sales grew 1%, with flow up 11% (incl. Hydrostop) and water solutions/pool up 1% each.
Buzzberg readNarrowed adjusted EPS guidance to $5.30-$5.40, raised low end by 5 cents.Pentair reported a solid Q1 with 3% sales growth and 100bps margin expansion. Management raised the low end of EPS guidance but maintained sales guidance, citing pool channel destocking risks and softer international demand. Core sales grew 1%, with flow up 11% (incl. Hydrostop) and water solutions/pool up 1% each.Read full analysisCollapse analysis
Pentair reported a solid Q1 with 3% sales growth and 100bps margin expansion. Management raised the low end of EPS guidance but maintained sales guidance, citing pool channel destocking risks and softer international demand. Core sales grew 1%, with flow up 11% (incl. Hydrostop) and water solutions/pool up 1% each.
Pool sell-through expected flat for 2026; sell-in to be reduced in Q2/Q3 to align channel inventory.
Flow growth driven by commercial buildings and data centers despite macro softness.
EU/Asia outlook trimmed due to Middle East supply chain issues; North America mix positive.
Revenue$1.0367B
+2% QoQ
EPS$1.22
+3% QoQ
Gross margin41.81%
reported
Op margin20.26%
reported
What changed this quarter
01
Guidance
Narrowed adjusted EPS guidance to $5.30-$5.40, raised low end by 5 cents.
Guidance · revenue to $4.12B
02
Margins
16th consecutive quarter of margin expansion; ROS up 100 bps to 25.0%.
Reported gross margin was 41.81%, reinforcing the quarter's better-than-guided profitability.
03
Pool
Pool sell-through assumed flat volume; sell-in pressure expected in Q2 and Q3.
Pool sell-through expected flat for 2026; sell-in to be reduced in Q2/Q3 to align channel inventory.
04
Tariffs
Tariffs and inflation expected net neutral for full year; price offsets.
Flow growth driven by commercial buildings and data centers despite macro softness.
Demand
Demand
Bookings & conversion
Guidance is mixed: modest EPS raise but cautious on pool sell-through and macro uncertainties.
Tone · Measured
Management expressed confidence in execution and long-term strategy but remained cautious about macro volatility, pool market dynamics, and tariff impacts.
Supply-chain alpha
A1
Pool channel partners over-bought in late 2025, and Pentair expects to reduce sell-in in Q2/Q3 2026 to align with flat sell-through.
Flow growth is being driven by commercial building wins (K-12, hospitals, universities) and data centers, even as macro is soft.
“There are green shoots because of our efforts specifically focused on commercial buildings. That's K through 12, that's hospitals, universities, and even a little bit of data centers in the pumping technology space.”
“We've reflected a little bit lower outlooks in those regions relative to some of the supply chain challenges related to what's going on in the Middle East.”
Pool channel partners over-bought in late 2025, and Pentair expects to reduce sell-in in Q2/Q3 2026 to align with flat sell-through. — Channel inventory correction may pressure pool distributors' near-term results.
… expected to be approximately flat with core sales up approximately low single digits and in line with our long-term plan. And pool sales are expected to increase approximately one to 3% in 2026. While we're encouraged by sell-through dynamics in Q1, sell-through levels for this pool season, which concludes in Q3 of 2026, may require our channel partners to reduce purchases in Q2 and Q3 to reflect 2026 pool industry growth. Therefore, we evaluated a wider range of pool revenue and income scenarios, and we have incorporated these assumptions and scenarios into our guidance update. We expect total Pentair adjusted operating income to increase approximately 6% to 8%, with return on sales expansion of roughly 100 basis points to approximately 26%. We expect price to offset inflation and expect another strong year of Pentair business system-driven productivity of approximately $70 million net of investments. We continue to evaluate and respond to ongoing changes in U.S. tariffs, inflation, and global supply chain impacts, We expect tariffs and inflation to have a net neutral impact over the year. For the second quarter, we expect sales to be up approximately 1%. We expect flow sales …
EU/Asia revenue outlook was trimmed due to Middle East supply chain disruptions, partially offset by North America mix. — Suggests regional divergence in industrial demand; North America stronger than Europe/Asia.
Hi, good morning. I just wanted to echo Dean's thanks and best wishes to Shelley. Just first off, just trying to understand the overall sort of headline company-wide slight guidance changes. So you have a... slightly lower sales guide because of the pool uncertainty, but I think you pushed up your off-profit guide slightly, but that's with sort of an unchanged productivity savings guide at 70 million, and that's with the sales guide coming down a touch. So maybe help us understand sort of the moving parts within that and anything by segment that's changed in your line of thinking versus prior guide.
Yeah, real quick, Julianne, just to remind you, we have a large, you know, we're $4 billion plus, and we do have regional revenue in Europe and Asia as well. And in this guide, we've reflected a little bit lower outlooks in those regions relative to some of the supply chain challenges related to what's going on in the Middle East. We are seeing those and reflected those in the guide. Some of that's being made up by North America, and you've got a positive mix on U.S., revenue offsetting what is lower margin mix in Europe and Asia. So I just wanted to share that insight as to what's in the guide as well that's helping margin.
And then if I think about automation, can you talk about how much this causes like a lock-in of equipment? Like if I use Pentair automation on the top as an overarching, how much does that lock you into using Pentair equipment? you know, equipment underneath it. And, and by the counterpoint, like I've heard, there's been more kind of ability for other companies, kind of automation solutions to sit on top of like an agnostic kind of hardware platform. So just curious how that has changed or evolved and how you think your, your position there from like a, a lock-in from automation.
Yeah, I think you gotta look at where we're really well positioned is on a premium pool, multi-body large water features, high-end aspects. And when you talk about automation at that level, you've got a lot of optimization of products. You know, you turn on a spa. You want to move valves to change the flow of water. You want to flip on and off on heat pumps versus maybe natural gas heat to optimize your energy capability. You want to optimize energy of pumps. That is what high-end automation looks like. If you're looking for simple control features, on, off, and the time that you go on, off, there are a lot of lower cost automation solutions. And we will also have a low-end automation solution in 2027 to take care of that small or simple pad that you're referring to. I'm optimistic that it could change the automation penetration, but you still need a consumer to say, I want automation. You want a service provider that wants to utilize that automation. and you ultimately have to create value at a certain price point and the channel to sell it. And so we have it in our pipeline. It is an opportunity. We talked about the TAM that will produce an analyst day, and we're going to work really, really hard to get that automation of simple pools to get to breakthrough levels.
🍪 Cookies
We use cookies to operate this site and for analytics. Declining won't affect your access to content.