Polaris Axes This Year's Financial Guidance Amid Uncertain Times, Read Tariffs

The question is, how far does "withdrawing financial guidance" actually go?

Photo by: Justin Michau

By: Robbie Bacon

May 2, at 10:48am ET

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Unfortunately, this isn't the first time I've covered Polaris's financial situation this year. And even more unfortunately, it seems to have gone from bad to worse. Although, to be fair, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot the company could've done about it.

During 2020 and 2021, Polaris couldn't keep up with customer demand for its products, but fast forward to 2024, and the company cut 10% of its workforce, and planned to cut a further $40 million in costs this year. But even those plans weren't enough to keep some legs of the company financially viable. Earlier this year, Polaris axed Timbersled snow bikes for good in an effort to help turn the company's ship around.

The pandemic created a feast for powersport manufacturers, and now there's a famine. But there are micro and macro factors at play, too. On the macro side of things, inflation is slowing down big purchases, and on the micro side, simply not having enough snowfall last winter hurt sales. But now there's another hurdle—tariffs. And the problem with this issue is that no one can predict how heavily it'll hurt the company

According to sources, in the first three months of this year, Polaris has lost $66.8 million, and sales are down 12%. The company is down $1.17 a share, compared to $0.90 a share this time last year. This isn't only a Polaris problem, as sales in the powersports industry seem to be down across the board, with competitors like BRP needing to sell off legs of the company to stay competitive.

The situation surrounding the ever-changing tariffs imposed by President Donald Trump has created economic uncertainty for the Medina-based firm, meaning the original financial guidelines released at the start of this year have been axed.

“Results from this quarter were in line with our expectations, as we continued to prioritize supporting our dealer network and managing a prolonged industry downturn,” Mike Speetzen, chief executive of Polaris said in a news release. “While consumer uncertainty and a dynamic tariff environment are near-term hurdles, we are thoughtfully navigating these challenges.”

Sales were down 1.5 billion for the quarter, and the manufacturer has said that it estimates its second quarter sales will be down by $1.6 billion to $1.8 billion. To put that into context, that would put the company's sales down by up to $1.96 billion when compared to the same time last year.

How this will affect the proposed cuts that we previously covered, however, is yet to be seen.