Rhumbline Advisers Increases Position in Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII)

Rhumbline Advisers lifted its position in shares of Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII) by 0.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 143,540 shares of the company’s stock after purchasing an additional 391 shares during the period. Rhumbline Advisers owned about 0.26% of Polaris worth $8,271,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Consolidated Planning Corp acquired a new position in Polaris in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $235,000. Hidden Cove Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in Polaris during the fourth quarter worth approximately $432,000. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its position in shares of Polaris by 130.4% during the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 94,404 shares of the company’s stock worth $5,440,000 after buying an additional 53,438 shares during the last quarter. Angeles Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Polaris in the 4th quarter valued at $1,318,000. Finally, Empowered Funds LLC grew its position in shares of Polaris by 38.2% in the 4th quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 21,413 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,234,000 after buying an additional 5,918 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on PII. KeyCorp cut shares of Polaris from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. BMO Capital Markets reduced their target price on Polaris from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley reissued an “equal weight” rating and issued a $60.00 target price (down from $81.00) on shares of Polaris in a research report on Tuesday, January 21st. Royal Bank of Canada cut their price target on Polaris from $65.00 to $54.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded Polaris from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 8th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $66.17.

Polaris Price Performance

Shares of NYSE PII opened at $47.09 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $52.05 and a 200 day moving average price of $67.51. Polaris Inc. has a 1-year low of $42.85 and a 1-year high of $100.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 0.39. The company has a market cap of $2.64 billion, a PE ratio of 24.02, a P/E/G ratio of 13.95 and a beta of 1.50.

Polaris (NYSE:PII) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.92 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.03. Polaris had a net margin of 1.54% and a return on equity of 13.78%. Sell-side analysts forecast that Polaris Inc. will post 1.11 EPS for the current year.

Polaris Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a $0.67 dividend. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.69%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. This is a positive change from Polaris’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Polaris’s payout ratio is currently 136.73%.

About Polaris

Polaris Inc designs, engineers, manufactures, and markets powersports vehicles in the United States, Canada, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Off-Road, On-Road, and Marine. The company offers off-road vehicles (ORVs), including all-terrain vehicles and side-by-side vehicles; military and commercial ORVs; snowmobiles; motorcycles; and moto-roadsters, quadricycles, and boats.