What happened
Shares of Polaris Industries (PII 1.20%) climbed as much as 12.9% early Tuesday, then settled to a 5.8% gain at the close after the off-road vehicle specialist announced strong fourth-quarter 2019 results.
So what
Quarterly sales climbed 7% year over year to $1.736 billion, translating to adjusted net income of $114.9 million, or $1.83 per share. That brought full-year 2019 adjusted earnings to $6.32 per share on a roughly 12% increase in sales to $6.783 billion. By comparison, Polaris' guidance provided in October called for lower full-year earnings of $6.20 to $6.30 per share on about the same revenue.
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CEO Scott Wine pointed to "positive fourth-quarter retail momentum in both Off-Road Vehicles and Motorcycles," as well as modest growth from Transamerican Auto Parts (TAP) stores and (for the first time in company history) more than $1 billion in full-year sales of non-TAP parts, garments, and accessories and other aftermarket revenue.
Now what
Polaris issued 2020 guidance for sales to increase roughly 2% to 4% from 2019, and for adjusted net income per share of $6.80 to $7.05. Most analysts were modeling 2020 sales near the high end of that range, but with earnings closer to the bottom end of Polaris' EPS targets.
