HM Payson & Co. Sells 425 Shares of Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII)

HM Payson & Co. cut its position in Polaris Inc. (NYSE:PII) by 0.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 53,646 shares of the company’s stock after selling 425 shares during the quarter. HM Payson & Co. owned approximately 0.10% of Polaris worth $3,091,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of PII. Venturi Wealth Management LLC grew its stake in Polaris by 534.5% in the 3rd quarter. Venturi Wealth Management LLC now owns 349 shares of the company’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 294 shares during the last quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC grew its stake in Polaris by 295.4% in the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 518 shares of the company’s stock valued at $30,000 after buying an additional 387 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its stake in Polaris by 187.4% in the 3rd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 388 shares of the company’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 253 shares during the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC grew its stake in Polaris by 232.6% in the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 968 shares of the company’s stock valued at $56,000 after buying an additional 677 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its stake in Polaris by 19.9% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 1,101 shares of the company’s stock valued at $92,000 after buying an additional 183 shares during the last quarter. 88.06% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of Polaris from $57.00 to $53.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Morgan Stanley reiterated an “equal weight” rating and issued a $60.00 target price (down from $81.00) on shares of Polaris in a research note on Tuesday, January 21st. UBS Group decreased their price target on shares of Polaris from $67.00 to $48.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, February 3rd. BMO Capital Markets decreased their price target on shares of Polaris from $60.00 to $50.00 and set a “market perform” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, January 29th. Finally, DA Davidson decreased their price target on shares of Polaris from $69.00 to $60.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, January 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $66.17.

Polaris Price Performance

Shares of Polaris stock opened at $47.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.27, a quick ratio of 0.39 and a current ratio of 1.15. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $49.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $65.52. Polaris Inc. has a twelve month low of $39.79 and a twelve month high of $100.91. The firm has a market cap of $2.67 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 13.95 and a beta of 1.54.

Polaris (NYSE:PII) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, January 28th. The company reported $0.92 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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%. As a group, research analysts expect that Polaris Inc. will post 1.11 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Polaris Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, March 17th. Investors of record on Monday, March 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.67 per share. This is an increase from Polaris’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.66. This represents a $2.68 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.63%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, March 3rd. Polaris’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) 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.