Is Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII) a buy?
At the moment, there are tons of indicators investors can use to analyze their holdings. Some of the best are hedge fund and insider trading activity. At Insider Monkey, our research analyses have shown that, historically, those who follow the top picks of the top money managers can trounce the market by a healthy amount (see just how much).
Equally as key, positive insider trading sentiment is a second way to analyze the world of equities. As the old adage goes: there are lots of motivations for a corporate insider to get rid of shares of his or her company, but only one, very obvious reason why they would behave bullishly. Plenty of academic studies have demonstrated the valuable potential of this method if you know where to look (learn more here).
Furthermore, let’s examine the newest info about Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII).
How have hedgies been trading Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII)?
In preparation for the third quarter, a total of 23 of the hedge funds we track held long positions in this stock, a change of 0% from the first quarter. With hedgies’ positions undergoing their usual ebb and flow, there exists a few key hedge fund managers who were upping their stakes considerably.
According to our 13F database, Rob Citrone’s Discovery Capital Management had the largest position in Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII), worth close to $74.4 million, comprising 0.8% of its total 13F portfolio. Coming in second is Capital Growth Management, managed by Ken Heebner, which held a $57 million position; the fund has 1.5% of its 13F portfolio invested in the stock. Other hedgies with similar optimism include David Keidan’s Buckingham Capital Management, Robert B. Gillam’s McKinley Capital Management and Ken Griffin’s Citadel Investment Group.
Judging by the fact that Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII) has witnessed a fall in interest from the top-tier hedge fund industry, we can see that there exists a select few hedge funds that decided to sell off their positions entirely heading into Q2. At the top of the heap, Dmitry Balyasny’s Balyasny Asset Management sold off the largest stake of all the hedgies we track, totaling about $6.9 million in stock, and John Overdeck and David Siegel of Two Sigma Advisors was right behind this move, as the fund sold off about $4.6 million worth. These bearish behaviors are interesting, as aggregate hedge fund interest stayed the same (this is a bearish signal in our experience).
Insider trading activity in Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII)
Insider buying is most useful when the company in question has experienced transactions within the past 180 days. Over the last 180-day time frame, Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII) has experienced zero unique insiders purchasing, and 5 insider sales (see the details of insider trades here).
We’ll go over the relationship between both of these indicators in other stocks similar to Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII). These stocks are Arctic Cat Inc (NASDAQ:ACAT), Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO), Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW), Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO), and Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG). All of these stocks are in the recreational vehicles industry and their market caps are closest to PII’s market cap.
| Company Name | # of Hedge Funds | # of Insiders Buying | # of Insiders Selling |
| Arctic Cat Inc (NASDAQ:ACAT) | 9 | 0 | 11 |
| Winnebago Industries, Inc. (NYSE:WGO) | 14 | 1 | 0 |
| Drew Industries, Inc. (NYSE:DW) | 8 | 0 | 11 |
| Thor Industries, Inc. (NYSE:THO) | 15 | 0 | 3 |
| Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) | 30 | 0 | 5 |
Using the returns explained by the previously mentioned studies, regular investors must always track hedge fund and insider trading sentiment, and Polaris Industries Inc. (NYSE:PII) shareholders fit into this picture quite nicely.
