Why Pentair Stock Popped This Morning
Key Points
Pool sales plummeted at Pentair in Q3, but total sales still beat expectations.
Pentair reaffirmed full-year guidance for sales and earnings, and is on track for more than $800 million in free cash flow.
Pentair stock still costs too much.
- Motley Fool Issues Rare "Total Conviction" Buy Alert ›
Pentair (NYSE:PNR) stock soared 12.2% through 11:30 a.m. ET after beating analyst forecasts for sales and earnings this morning.
Heading into the company's Q3 report, analysts expected Pentair to earn $1.08 per share (adjusted for one-time items) on sales of $965.3 million. Pentair actually earned $1.18 per share on $976 million in sales.
Missed AI’s "Act 1"? Act 2 Could Be 15x Bigger. Most investors think they missed the AI boat because they didn't buy Nvidia in 2005. But according to our analysts, we’re only at the end of "Act 1"—the R&D phase. "Act 2" is the global rollout. Continue »
Image source: Getty Images.
Pentair Q3 earnings
This was a sales beat as well as an earnings beat. CEO John Stauch called the result "solid" despite Pentair's sales declining 4% year over year, operating profit falling 15%, and net earnings falling 19% to $0.91 per share. ($0.91 was the GAAP profit; the $1.18 per share Pentair reported was a non-GAAP number.)
Management noted that it grew sales in flow and water solutions, but pool sales plummeted 18% due to "inventory realignment with our major channel partners."
On the plus side, Pentair reported positive free cash flow of $152.5 million for the quarter, and $619.5 million for the first three quarters of 2026.
What's next for Pentair stock
Turning to guidance, Pentair reaffirmed its prediction that it will likely earn $3.76 per share this year ($4.70, adjusted), with a smaller sales decline than in Q3 -- about 3% for the year. Helping to hit this target will be a rebound in sales to about 8% growth in Q4, with GAAP profit of $1.07 per share and non-GAAP profit of $1.15 per share.
Does all this justify bidding up Pentair stock 12% today?
I'm not sure it does. At a market capitalization of $9.9 billion, with free cash flow trending toward $825 million or better, Pentair stock trades for about a 12x price-to-free cash flow ratio today. That may not sound expensive, but with long-term growth forecast at only 5%, I think it's still too much to pay.
Should you buy stock in Pentair right now?
Before you buy stock in Pentair, consider this:
The Motley Fool Stock Advisor analyst team just identified what they believe are the 10 best stocks for investors to buy now… and Pentair wasn’t one of them. The 10 stocks that made the cut could produce monster returns in the coming years.
Consider when Netflix made this list on December 17, 2004... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $344,608!* Or when Nvidia made this list on April 15, 2005... if you invested $1,000 at the time of our recommendation, you’d have $1,327,222!*
Now, it’s worth noting Stock Advisor’s total average return is 904% — a market-crushing outperformance compared to 211% for the S&P 500. Don't miss the latest top 10 list, available with Stock Advisor, and join an investing community built by individual investors for individual investors.
See the 10 stocks »
*Stock Advisor returns as of October 27, 2026.
Rich Smith has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has no position in any of the stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Recommended Articles
