John Ritter
04-20-2005, 12:32 PM
I know their stocks (pii) are off a little bit right now check this out:
Foolish colleague Richard Gibbons had a great write-up including Polaris a little over a week ago, and he picked up on many of the things I saw in Polaris last year, when shares traded about 50% lower than they do now. Unlike Richard, I never picked up the shares, but I keep the company on my watch list because its Victory motorcycle division intrigues me.
It may seem like a bit of a stretch for a company that sells ATVs and snowmobiles to venture into motorcycles and onto the turf of Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HDI - News) and Honda (NYSE: HMC - News). But at a very basic level, all three products require small motors, and that's one of Polaris' core competencies. The secret to success is in styling, build quality, and development of the Victory brand. Polaris seems to be slowly advancing on all three fronts, taking in $23 million in sales last quarter, up 12%.
Shares of Polaris are 22% off the highs of a few months ago and were down 13% in the past few days. With a history of strong performance and a dividend yield around 2%, the shares are more intriguing then they have been in almost a year. That said, keep a close eye on Polaris' inventory levels because they have been creeping up lately, and while I think management knows how to handle this, the rising inventories may cause the wise to panic and offer the shares at a greater discount.
Foolish colleague Richard Gibbons had a great write-up including Polaris a little over a week ago, and he picked up on many of the things I saw in Polaris last year, when shares traded about 50% lower than they do now. Unlike Richard, I never picked up the shares, but I keep the company on my watch list because its Victory motorcycle division intrigues me.
It may seem like a bit of a stretch for a company that sells ATVs and snowmobiles to venture into motorcycles and onto the turf of Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HDI - News) and Honda (NYSE: HMC - News). But at a very basic level, all three products require small motors, and that's one of Polaris' core competencies. The secret to success is in styling, build quality, and development of the Victory brand. Polaris seems to be slowly advancing on all three fronts, taking in $23 million in sales last quarter, up 12%.
Shares of Polaris are 22% off the highs of a few months ago and were down 13% in the past few days. With a history of strong performance and a dividend yield around 2%, the shares are more intriguing then they have been in almost a year. That said, keep a close eye on Polaris' inventory levels because they have been creeping up lately, and while I think management knows how to handle this, the rising inventories may cause the wise to panic and offer the shares at a greater discount.