Blair William & Co. IL Has $241.45 Million Stock Position in Pool Co. (NASDAQ:POOL)

Blair William & Co. IL lowered its position in Pool Co. (NASDAQ:POOL) by 7.3% in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 708,190 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock after selling 55,999 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL’s holdings in Pool were worth $241,450,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in Pool by 0.5% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,443,451 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $1,514,950,000 after acquiring an additional 21,870 shares in the last quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised its stake in shares of Pool by 22.7% in the 3rd quarter. JPMorgan Chase & Co. now owns 1,260,313 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $474,886,000 after purchasing an additional 232,914 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of Pool by 0.7% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 964,343 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock valued at $362,196,000 after purchasing an additional 6,232 shares in the last quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of Pool by 0.6% during the third quarter. Wasatch Advisors LP now owns 565,339 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $213,020,000 after buying an additional 3,428 shares during the period. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp grew its holdings in shares of Pool by 0.9% during the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 419,919 shares of the specialty retailer’s stock worth $143,167,000 after buying an additional 3,575 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 98.99% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

POOL has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on Pool from $370.00 to $360.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, February 4th. StockNews.com lowered shares of Pool from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $368.00.

Pool Trading Up 0.4 %

NASDAQ POOL opened at $326.93 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $12.30 billion, a PE ratio of 28.98, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.05. Pool Co. has a 12 month low of $293.51 and a 12 month high of $415.05. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $342.15 and a 200-day moving average of $354.12. The company has a current ratio of 2.05, a quick ratio of 0.77 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71.

Pool (NASDAQ:POOL) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 20th. The specialty retailer reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.08. The company had revenue of $987.48 million for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $961.04 million. Pool had a net margin of 8.18% and a return on equity of 31.11%. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Pool Co. will post 11.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Pool Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 26th. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a dividend of $1.20 per share. This represents a $4.80 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.47%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. Pool’s payout ratio is presently 42.55%.

Insider Activity at Pool

In other Pool news, Director De La Mesa Manuel J. Perez sold 10,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $346.00, for a total value of $3,460,000.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 62,577 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $21,651,642. This represents a 13.78 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 3.00% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Pool Profile

Pool Corporation distributes swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products in the United States and internationally. The company offers maintenance products, including chemicals, supplies, and pool accessories; repair and replacement parts for pool equipment, such as cleaners, filters, heaters, pumps, and lights; and building materials, such as concrete, plumbing and electrical components, functional and decorative pool surfaces, decking materials, tiles, hardscapes, and natural stones for pool installations and remodeling.