CluenexPool Corporation POOL
Pool Corporation scores weak on business quality (4.4 of 10). Here is why, in plain words, and what our sealed record shows.
Why it matters
- What Pool Corporation does
Pool Corp distributes swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related outdoor living products to pool builders, service professionals, and retail outlets who pay for reliable inventory access and logistics.
- What it does best
Pool Corp dominates localized distribution with a 29.6% gross margin, outperforming peer LKQ's operating margin of 7.2% through dense branch networks that make rapid delivery nearly impossible for regional rivals to replicate.
- The main risk
Revenue contraction of 0.4% points to cooling demand, threatening the high-margin maintenance and construction product sales that support its billion-dollar debt load.
Quality, check by check
Scored against its own industry, from company filings.
Operating margin stands at 10.8% with free cash flow dropping to $301M from $600M previously, compressing profitability as revenue scales downward.
Exclusive builder relationships lock in professional contractors who rely on dense inventory placement, reflected in an ROE of 32.3% that insulates margins from new entrants.
Revenue declined 0.4% over the latest period, continuing a multi-year slide from $6.2B in 2022 down to $5.4B.
Net debt sits at $1.1B against $301M in free cash flow, showing a stretched balance sheet that leaves little room for error.
Insiders
Executives and directors, from SEC Form 4 filings we read ourselves. Open market trades only; grants, option exercises and pre-planned sales left out.
No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Our sealed record on POOL
Verdicts appear here 30 days after we publish them; members see today's. Each one is in the nightly ledger, fingerprinted the night it was made.
The first sealed verdicts appear here on Oct 11, 2026.
Questions
Pool Corporation scores weak on the Cluenex quality check (4.4 of 10), measured against its own industry. Profitability is weak, moat fair, growth slow and financial health fair.
In the last 90 days of SEC Form 4 filings: No open market buys or unplanned sales by executives or directors.
Oct 22, 2026.
See POOL today
- Today's verdict on POOL, and why
- Fair value with cautious, base and optimistic cases
- The exact price that would change the verdict
- Which stocks each signal names, the night it fires
Cite this page: Cluenex, “Pool Corporation (POOL)”, https://cluenex.com/stocks/pool/, data as of Oct 10, 2026.