Arctic Cat (Nasdaq: ACAT) forecasts weak full-year results, shares fall

Palm Beach, FL 5/15/12 (StreetBeat) -- Arctic Cat Inc (Nasdaq: ACAT) posted a smaller quarterly loss but the snowmobile maker forecast weak full-year results as it expects softness in North America sales.

Arctic Cat shares, which have doubled in value so far this year, fell 23 percent to a low of $35.44 on Tuesday on the Nasdaq.

The company forecast full-year earnings of $2.40 to $2.50 per share on sales of $631 million to $650 million. Analysts expected a profit of $2.70 per share on sales of $659.8 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Arctic Cat said it expects North America industry retail sales of all-terrain vehicles to be flat to down 5 percent and North America industry retail sales of snowmobiles to be flat to up 2 percent.

The company's fourth-quarter net loss narrowed to $6.2 million, or 49 cents per share, from $9.6 million, or 52 cents per share, a year ago.

Sales rose 26 percent to $98.5 million.

Analysts expected a loss of 56 cents per share on revenue of $92.7 million, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

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Investor Sees No Going Back for Polaris (NYSE:PII)

Tomahawk, WI 11/2/2011 (StreetBeat) – Polaris Industries (NYSE:PII) has broken a key resistance level, and one investor apparently believes that there is no going back.

optionMONSTER's monitoring programs detected the sale of about 2,000 March 62.50 puts for about $6.30 and the purchase of an equal number of March 57.50 puts for $4.40. There was barely any open interest in either strike when Friday's session began.

The trade resulted in a credit of $1.90, which the investor will get to keep if PII closes above $62.50 on expiration. The gains will erode below that level and turn to losses under $60.60. The pain will then stop at $57.50--meaning the position stands to lose a maximum of $3.10.

The strategy is known as a put credit spread and is a more complicated version of selling puts to earn income. Its benefit is that is provides protection against a major drop but also generates less income. (See our Education section)

PII fell 1.99 percent to $62.71 on Friday but is up more than 20 percent this month. The latest catalyst came on Oct. 18, when the maker of snowmobiles and off-road vehicles reported better-than-expected profit and raised full-year guidance.

Rival Arctic Cat (Nasdaq:ACAT) reported similar results last week. The companies may be benefiting from rising incomes in rural areas as the economy shifts to agriculture and energy production.

PII is now above the $61.50 level where it peaked July. That could make some chart watchers expect support around that price and help explain Friday's trade.

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