Polaris Industries Inc. beat first-quarter earnings estimates by six cents per share and boosted its full-year outlook, but revenue fell a bit short of projections and shares were down slightly in morning trading. (Update: All better now, stock’s up near midday)
The Medina-based maker of snowmobiles, motorcycles and off-road vehicles reported earnings of $75.5 million, or $1.07 a diluted share, up from $60.1 million, or 85 cents per share, last year. Sales rose 11 percent to $745.9 million.
Analysts had been expecting earnings of $1.01 per share on sales of $751.46 million.
A long winter (see: out your window) helped boost snowmobile sales by 217 percent over 2012, when the winter was warmer and shorter than usual. Parts, garments, and accessories revenue rose 27 percent, to about $127 million, while strong sales of larger ATVS drove that category’s revenue $541.3 million, up 7 percent
Meanwhile, the company’s warm-weather-related businesses (its motorcycles and electric vehicles, chiefly) dropped slightly as the winter stretched on. Polaris is investing heavily in a relaunch of the Indian motorcycle brand later this year.
Reuters reported that Polaris was seeing "a degree of timidity in some customer segments" related to the payroll tax hike earlier this year.
