Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII) Short Interest Up 17.7% in February

Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII) was the target of a significant growth in short interest in February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 8,060,000 shares, a growth of 17.7% from the February 13th total of 6,850,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,570,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.1 days. Currently, 15.4% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

Analyst Ratings Changes

PII has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada reiterated a “sector perform” rating and set a $54.00 price objective on shares of Polaris in a research report on Monday. KeyCorp cut shares of Polaris from an “overweight” rating to a “sector weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 8th. Roth Mkm cut their price objective on Polaris from $76.00 to $57.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, January 24th. StockNews.com downgraded Polaris from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Wednesday, January 8th. Finally, UBS Group dropped their price target on Polaris from $67.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, February 3rd. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $59.83.

Polaris Stock Down 0.9 %

PII stock opened at $42.17 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $2.37 billion, a PE ratio of 21.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.95 and a beta of 1.54. Polaris has a one year low of $39.29 and a one year high of $100.91. The company has a fifty day moving average of $47.51 and a 200-day moving average of $63.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 1.15.

Polaris (NYSE:PII) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.89 by $0.03. Polaris had a return on equity of 13.78% and a net margin of 1.54%. As a group, analysts expect that Polaris will post 1.11 EPS for the current year.

Polaris Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd were given a dividend of $0.67 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Monday, March 3rd. This represents a $2.68 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 6.36%. This is a positive change from Polaris’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. Polaris’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 136.73%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of PII. Raymond James Financial Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Polaris during the fourth quarter worth about $21,776,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its holdings in Polaris by 371.7% during the 4th quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 28,979 shares of the company’s stock worth $1,669,000 after buying an additional 22,835 shares during the last quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp boosted its holdings in Polaris by 45.3% in the fourth quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 776,473 shares of the company’s stock worth $44,740,000 after purchasing an additional 241,926 shares during the period. Angeles Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Polaris during the 4th quarter valued at about $1,318,000. Finally, Amundi bought a new position in shares of Polaris during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,179,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 88.06% of the company’s stock.

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.