Water treatment company Pentair increased its earnings guidance for the year after a strong start to 2021.
Pentair, which is headquartered in London but has management offices in Golden Valley, reported first quarter earnings of $128.6 million, or 78 cents per share, an 81% increase from the same period last year. Adjusted EPS was 81 cents per share, more than 30% higher than what analysts were expecting.
Sales for the quarter were $866 million, up 22% from the first quarter of 2020 and 11% better than what analysts were expecting.
Pentair is a leader in the residential pool industry, and Chief Financial Officer Robert Fishman said the category grew 50% during the quarter on strong preseason demand and a spike in pool repair and maintenance after the southern storms. The performance was key to the consumer solutions business and overall results, he said.
The consumer solutions business saw a 34% sales increase.
Pentair Chief Executive John Stauch pointed to two recent acquisitions as reason to expect further growth.
“We recently completed the acquisition of Rocean and signed an agreement to purchase Ken’s Beverage, which helps us to fill out key strategic growth opportunities within the water treatment business of our consumer solutions segment,” Stauch said in a statement.
Pentair completed the acquisition of Rocean, which sells a residential countertop water filtration system, at the end of 2020. Pentair announced earlier this week plans to purchase Ken’s Beverage, a provider of beverage equipment and service to commercial customers.
The company raised its guidance for the remainder of 2021, estimating earnings per share at $2.80 to $2.95 and a 6% to 11% sales increase.
Patrick Kennedy • 612-673-7926