Pentair stock plummeted Wednesday after the company slashed full-year guidance, reported lower-than-expected earnings, and said its chief financial officer resigned unexpectedly.

The company said it expects 2026 full-year sales to drop 4% to 7%, a sharp reversal from its previous guidance of 2% to 4% sales growth.

Shares of the global water treatment company dived 16% to $63.98 Wednesday, putting the stock on pace for its largest single-day percentage decrease since 2000 and its lowest close since November 2023.

Pentair's preliminary results for the second quarter were also sharply lower than expectations. The company estimates that sales fell 17% to $930 million from the year-ago quarter, a steep difference from its previous outlook for a 1% rise in sales. Adjusted earnings of $1.12 a share in the period missed the company's previous guidance of $1.47 to $1.50 a share.

Pentair said the decline comes primarily from a decline in its pool segment's sales and "worsening business conditions, including higher interest rates and inflation."

The company will report official second-quarter earnings on July 28.

"We believe these headwinds are temporary and we are taking decisive actions to adapt the business to current demand levels while positioning it to return to normalized performance in 2027," Pentair CEO John L. Stauch said in Wednesday's news release. "We are confident that these actions will bring us closer to our dealers, accelerate innovation and drive long-term growth."

The company also said that CFO Nicholas Brazis left to pursue another opportunity at a private company. Bob Fishman, Pentair's former executive vice president and CFO, will serve as interim CFO, effective immediately, the company said.

Wall Street took notice. RBC analyst Deane Dray set a price target of $74, down from $101, citing concerns in that pool inventory is proving far worse than management said on their first-quarter earnings call.

Write to Molly Bordoff at molly.bordoff@barrons.com

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July 15, 2026 11:32 ET (15:32 GMT)

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