Pentair shares plummeted on Wednesday after the pool and water-technology company slashed full-year guidance, reported soft earnings, and said its chief financial officer resigned.
In midday trading, the stock dived 17% to $62.84, wiping out about $2 billion in market value. The drop puts Pentair on pace for its largest single-day percentage decrease since 2000 and its lowest close since November 2023, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
Other water and pool stocks dropped, too. Xylem was down 1.2%. Veralto, which makes pool testing products, was off 1%. Pool Corp fell 4.3%. the Minnesota-based company.
Pentair delivered its bad news in the morning. It expects full-year sales to drop 4% to 7%; it had forecast a range of 2% to 4% increase in sales. The gap represents roughly $250 million in expected revenue.
Pentair's preliminary second-quarter results were also sharply lower than expectations. The company estimates sales of $930 million, down 17% from a year ago; Wall Street's revenue projection was $1.1 billion. Earnings per share should be about $1.10, off about 40 cents from previous guidance. Analysts had expected $1.38.
The company will report official second-quarter earnings on July 28.
Pentair said the lower numbers are a result of a decline in pool segment sales caused by an inventory reduction of about $170 million. Higher interest rates and inflation also had an adverse effect.
"We believe these headwinds are temporary and we are taking decisive actions to adapt the business to current demand levels while positioning it to return to normalized performance in 2027," CEO John L. Stauch said in statement.
Also, Pentair said CFO Nicholas Brazis took a position at a private company. He will be succeeded on an interim basis by Bob Fishman, Pentair's former executive vice president and CFO.
After the preliminary report, two analysts downgraded the stock and one also lowered his target price. Seaport Research's Scott Graham lowered his rating to Neutral from Buy. RBC Capital's Deane Dray lowered his rating to Sector Perform from Outperform and his price target to $74 from $101. Dray cited concerns about pool inventory.
More than half of the analysts covering Pentair -- 55% -- think the stock is a Buy. The average analyst price target is about $94.
Write to Molly Bordoff at molly.bordoff@barrons.com and Al Root at allen.root@dowjones.com
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(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 15, 2026 15:15 ET (19:15 GMT)
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