UBS Group AG Sells 10,265 Shares of Pool Co. (NASDAQ:POOL)

UBS Group AG lowered its stake in Pool Co. (NASDAQ:POOL – Get Rating) by 41.4% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 14,555 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 10,265 shares during the quarter. UBS Group AG’s holdings in Pool were worth $4,631,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of POOL. William Blair Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Pool in the second quarter valued at about $106,850,000. Millennium Management LLC increased its position in Pool by 1,186.5% during the second quarter. Millennium Management LLC now owns 151,130 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $53,081,000 after buying an additional 139,383 shares during the last quarter. Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. increased its position in Pool by 200.8% during the second quarter. Waratah Capital Advisors Ltd. now owns 160,656 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $56,359,000 after buying an additional 107,239 shares during the last quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC increased its position in Pool by 388.9% during the second quarter. Renaissance Technologies LLC now owns 133,636 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $46,937,000 after buying an additional 106,300 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Point72 Asset Management L.P. increased its position in Pool by 501.9% during the second quarter. Point72 Asset Management L.P. now owns 120,972 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $42,489,000 after buying an additional 100,872 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.15% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on the company. Jefferies Financial Group boosted their price target on Pool from $325.00 to $350.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, February 13th. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their target price on Pool from $375.00 to $425.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, February 17th. Stifel Nicolaus downgraded Pool from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and upped their target price for the company from $355.00 to $360.00 in a research report on Monday, February 6th. KeyCorp upped their target price on Pool from $345.00 to $387.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 25th. Finally, StockNews.com raised Pool from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, February 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $401.18.

Pool Stock Down 2.3 %

NASDAQ POOL opened at $348.55 on Thursday. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $351.24 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $336.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.10, a current ratio of 2.99 and a quick ratio of 0.63. Pool Co. has a fifty-two week low of $278.10 and a fifty-two week high of $488.75. The stock has a market capitalization of $13.63 billion, a PE ratio of 18.70, a PEG ratio of 3.64 and a beta of 0.91.

Pool (NASDAQ:POOL – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 16th. The specialty retailer reported $1.79 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.00 by ($0.21). The company had revenue of $1.10 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.14 billion. Pool had a return on equity of 61.70% and a net margin of 12.11%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 5.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $2.30 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Pool Co. will post 16.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Pool Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, March 29th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 15th will be issued a dividend of $1.00 per share. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 14th. This represents a $4.00 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.15%. Pool’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 21.46%.

About Pool

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Pool Corp. engages in the wholesale distribution of swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products. It also offers non-discretionary pool maintenance products such as chemicals and replacement parts, discretionary products like packaged pool kits, whole goods, irrigation, and landscape products, including a complete line of commercial and residential irrigation products and parts, power equipment for the professional landscape market, specialty products such as outdoor lighting, grills, and outdoor kitchen components, and golf irrigation and water management products.