As the craze of earnings season draws to a close, here’s a look back at some of the most exciting (and some less so) results from Q4. Today, we are looking at specialized consumer services stocks, starting with Pool (NASDAQ:POOL).

Some consumer discretionary companies don’t fall neatly into a category because their products or services are unique. Although their offerings may be niche, these companies have often found more efficient or technology-enabled ways of doing or selling something that has existed for a while. Technology can be a double-edged sword, though, as it may lower the barriers to entry for new competitors and allow them to do serve customers better.

The 11 specialized consumer services stocks we track reported a mixed Q4. As a group, revenues beat analysts’ consensus estimates by 0.6% while next quarter’s revenue guidance was 0.5% below.

Amidst this news, share prices of the companies have had a rough stretch. On average, they are down 10.6% since the latest earnings results.

Pool (NASDAQ:POOL)

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Louisiana, Pool (NASDAQ:POOL) is one of the largest wholesale distributors of swimming pool supplies, equipment, and related leisure products.

Pool reported revenues of $987.5 million, down 1.6% year on year. This print exceeded analysts’ expectations by 2.4%. Overall, it was a satisfactory quarter for the company with an impressive beat of analysts’ organic revenue estimates but full-year EPS guidance missing analysts’ expectations.

“Our results in 2024 highlight the strength of our business model in a pressured macroenvironment. Strategic execution in our growth initiatives allowed us to achieve net sales of $5.3 billion despite tempered discretionary spending. This year we enhanced our POOL360 digital ecosystem with technology rollouts and expanded our digital marketing programs, leading to increased sales of our private-label chemical products. We also continued to expand our sales center network, further improving our ability to serve our customers and widen our reach, with the addition of 10 greenfield locations and 2 acquisitions, bringing our total locations to 448 worldwide. We ended the year with strong operating cash flows of $659.2 million and are proud to have returned $483.4 million to our shareholders through dividends and share repurchases,” said Peter D. Arvan, president and CEO.

The stock is down 4.2% since reporting and currently trades at $326.63.

Is now the time to buy Pool? Access our full analysis of the earnings results here, it’s free .

Best Q4: Frontdoor (NASDAQ:FTDR)

Established in 2018 as a spin-off from ServiceMaster Global Holdings, Frontdoor (NASDAQ:FTDR) is a provider of home warranty and service plans.