Polaris Inc. (PII) Earnings Call Transcript

Good day, and welcome to the Polaris Third Quarter 2026 Earnings Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]. Please note, this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the conference over to J.C. Weigelt. Please go ahead.

Thank you, Chad, and good morning or afternoon, everyone. I'm J.C. Weigelt, Vice President of Investor Relations at Polaris. Thank you for joining us for our 2026 third quarter earnings call. We will reference a slide presentation today which is accessible on our website at ir.polaris.com. Joining me on the call today are Mike Speetzen, our Chief Executive Officer; and Bob Mack, our Chief Financial Officer. Both have prepared remarks summarizing our 2026 3rd quarter results as well as our expectations for the remainder of 2026, then we'll take your questions. During the call, we will be discussing various topics, which should be considered forward-looking for the purpose of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Actual results could differ materially from those projections in the forward-looking statements. You can refer to our 2025 10-K and our other filings with the SEC for additional details regarding risks and uncertainties. All references to 2026 third quarter actual results and future period guidance are for our continuing operations and are reported on an adjusted non-GAAP basis, unless otherwise noted. Please refer to our Reg G reconciliation schedules at the end of the presentation and at the end of our earnings deck for the GAAP to non-GAAP adjustments. Now I will turn the call over to Mike Speetzen. Go ahead, Mike.

Thanks, J.C. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. We delivered another strong quarter with results exceeding our expectations and demonstrating that the actions we've taken over the past several years are making Polaris a stronger, more focused and more profitable company. We are the global leader in powersports with leading share in the largest U.S. manufacturing footprint in the industry. Our portfolio serves all who play and work outside. And today, over half of our sales come from customers who buy their vehicles for work, from farms to ranches to commercial job sites as well as government agencies and the military. I'm proud of how the Polaris team continues to execute. They've stayed focused and have done a great job navigating a dynamic environment. As a result, our dealer inventory remains healthy, we gained share in ORV for the sixth consecutive quarter. And once again, we delivered industry-leading innovative products that were launched at our dealer shows in August. While the consumer environment remains dynamic, we continue to focus on what we can control. That focus is driving share gains translating into stronger operating performance and we believe positioning us to deliver our full year outlook and mid-cycle targets. Third quarter reported sales increased 11%, and excluding Indian motorcycle from Q3 of 2025, sales grew 17%. Sales growth was driven by high single-digit growth in ORV double-digit growth in PG&A and high double-digit growth in commercial, government and defense and marine as well as over 100% growth in seasonal. Our growth was driven by growing end markets and share gains in ORV. Strong growth in large capital projects such as data centers, increasing the need for our commercial products. Given the level of infrastructure investment we're seeing, we believe this business has a long runway for growth. Growing government and defense demand supported by increased defense spending across the U.S., Canada and NATO with U.S. manufactured utility and snow products contributing to that growth. robust ridership leading to higher parts and accessories sales, meaningful innovation across ORV and marine and healthy dealer inventory levels, which allowed us to ship in snowmobiles ahead of the season. Growth this broad in a soft consumer market shows the strength of a portfolio built for both utility and recreation. Turning to margins. Adjusted EBITDA margin improved 118 basis points to 8.8%. Positive contributors to margins were volume, net price and operational efficiencies. As expected, offsetting these gains were higher commodity costs driven by elevated prices for steel, diesel, aluminum and logistics. Our lean work in our manufacturing facilities helped to offset more than half of the commodity pressure. We also recorded $10 million in EPA tariff refunds and related interest during the quarter. As we did last quarter, we have removed these refunds from our adjusted financial metrics, and we'll refer to them as operational adjusted results on today's call and our earnings materials. Excluding these refunds, our operational performance drove margins higher by approximately 85 basis points. We delivered adjusted earnings per share of $1.08, which includes the pretax $10 million in tariff refunds. Excluding these tariff refunds, operational adjusted EPS was $0.95 compared to $0.41 last year and was well above our expectations. In July, we noted that our earnings split between the third and fourth quarter could shift with the timing of fall and winter shipments, which is a portion of the Q3 overperformance, given higher-than-expected shipments in snowmobile and utility. This year, with snowmobile dealer inventory in good shape, we shipped a portion of those units in the third quarter to ensure dealers had inventory to meet early season consumer demand. Bob will walk through the details in his remarks. As a result of our third quarter performance and the momentum we are seeing across the business, we are raising guidance for the third time this year. Excluding tariff refunds, we now expect operational adjusted EPS of $2.40 to $2.50, up from our prior guidance of $205 million to $215 million. And while uncertainty remains, October retail is tracking in line with expectations. We still have work ahead of us, but the business is on an increasingly solid footing, and we remain confident that our focus on innovation disciplined inventory management and operational execution positioned Polaris well as we head into 2027. Moving to our retail performance. Total company retail was flat for the quarter. ORV North American retail was up 2%, outperforming the industry and gaining share for the sixth consecutive quarter. This growth was even more impressive as we were comparing against a very strong third quarter of 2025 and where North American ORV retail grew 9% on the heels of a successful FAC event. [ Transmit ] and ORV remained consistent with recent quarters, with utility growing and recreation seeing pressure from external factors. Because we serve customers who use our vehicles for work as well as for fun, utility growth more than offset softness in more discretionary recreational markets resulting in ORV retail growth. ORV utility continues to be the biggest driver for our business as it represents over 60% of Polaris powersports sales. From the value tier RANGER 500 and Sportsman 500 to the new Ranger cab units, the premium North Star lines and Ranger XD 1500, we give dealers and customers a broad and innovative utility portfolio. Six straight quarters of share gains reflect that strength. Additional data points that demonstrate our leadership position in ORV include -- this quarter marked our highest third quarter ORV share in the industry since the third quarter of 2019. The RANGER 500 helped our midsized portfolio of Rangers gained more than 10 points of segment share in the quarter. Our Ranger cab units gained multiple points of share in the quarter and still represent over 50% of our Ranger sales. Cab units with Comfort features such as AC and heat continue to grow faster than the broader industry. For Polaris specifically, we have seen over 70% growth in utility cab units since 2023. We are shipping three new vehicles to dealers in the fourth quarter. The first is the Polaris expedition with Numatix, this is our second-generation expedition while competitors have yet to launch a product that we believe is comparable. The second is the RZR Pro R boost, the industry's most powerful side-by-side with a leading 275-horsepower and 223-pound feet of torque. And third is our new value tier ATV, the Sportsman 500. Our close relationships with dealers is paying off as our survey work reflects an improvement in dealer sentiment over the last 2 years with the recent data set showing us tied for the lead. And finally, our commercial, government and defense businesses deserve mentioned, Commercial demand is tied to infrastructure and data center construction and these construction contractors rely on our purpose-built vehicles and our parts support to keep their projects running. In Government & Defense, we're seeing growth across a range of customers and applications, supported by increased defense spending across the U.S., Canada and NATO. These customers buy on government budgets and project schedules rather than on consumer confidence, that gives these businesses a different profile through the cycle than recreation. The highlight of the quarter for me was attending the OVM Marine dealer shows and product launches in August. Nothing is more energizing than seeing our dealers overtaking with excitement for our new products. I'm proud of the products we recently launched, but what makes me even more excited is what's ahead. We have a strong pipeline of innovation -- innovative products planned for the next 3 to 4 years, and I believe the best is yet to come. Turning to Marine. Our third quarter pontoon retail was down low double digits according to the August SSI report. The good news is that we gained pontoon share in the quarter, but that remains -- but it remains a challenging industry. Our intention is to keep innovating to drive consumer interest and ensure we have an attractive portfolio of pontoons and deck boats when the industry recovers. We continue to see healthy dealer inventory levels across our portfolio. During the third quarter, we again strategically increased inventory in utility given the robust growth we are experiencing in this category. We did see a slight increase in ORV recreational inventory associated with the timing of the new Polaris expedition launch, but expect it to be normalized by year-end. We also continue to take the appropriate actions to rightsize dealer inventory in our seasonal business, and we entered the snowmobile season with dealer inventory in the best position in years. In aggregate, dealer inventory was up 3% in the quarter versus last year. and dealer DSOs are slightly over 100 days, which remains well below historic levels. We remain committed to matching shipments to retail, and we expect dealer inventory to end the year in a healthy position relative to retail. I'm now going to turn it over to Bob to provide you with more details on the financials and the increase to our full year guidance.

Thanks, Mike. The strong momentum we saw in the first half of the year continued into the third quarter, and we delivered results well above our expectations across each of our key financial metrics. Sales were up 11% or 17% organically, excluding Indian Motorcycle. As Mike noted, some of the growth came from the earlier timing of vehicle shipments, mainly snowmobiles, which I will walk through shortly. We also saw strong contributions coming from ORV, commercial, government and defense and marine. Total PG&A sales increased 12%, driven by parts and oil which we attribute to strong ridership data and strong sales in apparel ahead of the snow season. We recognized $10 million of tariff refunds and related interest that was not contemplated in our July outlook. Excluding the refunds, operational adjusted EBITDA margin still increased 85 basis points and operational adjusted EPS was $0.95 versus $0.41 a year ago. Underlying performance was strong in the quarter. In addition, approximately $0.30 of adjusted EPS shifted from the fourth quarter into the third quarter, primarily due to two timing items. First, we were able to ramp up efficient Ranger production on the new lean line in our Huntsville facility earlier than anticipated. When the line opened in early July, we expected the benefits to be more heavily weighted toward the fourth quarter as operators adjusted to the new process. The team progressed more quickly than anticipated allowing us to capture a greater portion of those shipments in the third quarter. Second, healthy snowmobile inventory at our dealers allowed us to ship more product ahead of the season than we have historically. These earlier shipments benefit our dealers by providing additional setup time and allowing them to focus on retail execution during the selling season. Although these items affected the quarterly cadence, both reflect positive developments, faster progress on our lean initiatives and healthier snowmobile inventory across our dealer network. Turning to our segments. Polaris powersports sales increased 18% year-over-year, with growth across our major product lines. Seasonal, commercial and government and defense delivered particularly strong performances, while ORV also generated high single-digit growth. Overall, it was another strong quarter for the segment. Utility continues to be a key strength and differentiator for Polaris. Our broad Ranger portfolio spans across the value tier through ultra-premium and extreme duty products, complemented by our commercial business, where we continue to see strong demand at large job sites such as data centers. Utility products represented approximately 60% of Powersports sales and more than 50% of Powersports sales in the quarter. This mix differentiates Polaris from our -- both our direct competitors and the other leisure companies that have greater exposure to discretionary purchases. Many of our customers rely on our industry-leading products to get work done whether on a ranch, a farm, a data center project, a general construction site or at a municipal facility. Powersports PG&A sales were up 19%, driven by factory installed accessories and oil sales providing further evidence that customers continue to ride and use our vehicles. Commercial PG&A revenues were up significantly, bolstered by parts in factory installed accessories and configurations requested by our commercial customers. Gross profit margin from operations declined 19 basis points. Positive net price and operational efficiencies partially offset a 190 basis point headwind from commodities, logistics and tariff costs. As we discussed last quarter, commodities and logistics continue to be one of the more significant year-over-year pressures in the second half of the year. Marine sales increased 29%, driven by a richer mix of pontoons led by the Beddington QS and Godfrey Sanpan premium lines. Gross margin increased 43 basis points year-over-year, reflecting favorable mix and operational efficiencies. We expect premium mix to remain a positive contributor through the selling season. Higher commodity costs, particularly aluminum, continued to press our margins, and we expect that headwind to persist while aluminum prices remain elevated. Aixam and Goupil sales declined 12%, affecting our planned reduction in Aixam shipments to better align dealer inventory with retail demand heading into the new year. Gross profit margin declined 47 basis points year-over-year primarily due to these lower planned volumes. Our capital deployment priorities remain unchanged. First, investing in core businesses to drive higher-margin, profitable growth; second, returning capital to shareholders through our dividend; and third, reducing debt. As we expected, cash generation was strong in the third quarter with operating cash flow of approximately $382 million of seasonal working capital unwound. We used that cash to reduce total debt by more than $320 million mostly by repaying borrowings under our revolving credit facility. Supported by our strong year-to-date operational performance, we reduced our net leverage ratio from 3.4x at the beginning of the year to 2x at the end of the third quarter. We expect to make further progress in Exit '26 with net leverage below 2x. We remain confident in our financial position, and we continue to take a disciplined approach to capital deployment. We plan to continue to strengthen balance sheet flexibility while managing the business in line with investment-grade metrics. We now expect year-end working capital to be negative 2% of sales, a 100 basis point improvement versus prior expectations. We expect working capital reductions to continue into next year as we localize our supply chain in North America, which also reduces tariff exposure to China. Moving to guidance. We are raising our full year outlook given our third quarter beat and continued strength across the business. This is the third time we have raised guidance this year, demonstrating the consistent operational execution of our teams and the improving earnings power of the business. We now expect full year sales of $7.55 billion to $7.60 billion, representing growth of approximately 6% and with both ends of the range above our prior guidance. Excluding the sale of Indian motorcycle in the first quarter, this range reflects approximately 11% organic sales growth at the midpoint. We expect fourth quarter organic sales to be roughly flat as Q4 retail is expected to be flattish and the shift of snowmobile shipments into the third quarter are partially offset by year-over-year sales growth in marine. We are also narrowing our full year adjusted EBITDA margin outlook to the upper end of our prior range. We now expect adjusted EBITDA margin to increase 270 to 275 basis points. On an operational basis, excluding tariff refunds, we expect margin expansion of approximately 165 to 170 basis points compared with our prior outlook of 145 to 170 basis points. The primary operational drivers of this year's margin expansion are higher volume, favorable mix and operational efficiencies. These are partially offset by higher commodity and logistics costs which we expect to be approximately $70 million higher than last year. In the fourth quarter, we expect adjusted EBITDA margin to increase by more than 100 basis points primarily due to the benefit from the Indian Motorcycle separation and positive net price. These benefits will be partially offset by higher commodity and logistics costs. On tariffs, we still expect to pay approximately $215 million this year, unchanged from our prior outlook. This assumes no material change to USMCA or other tariff policies currently in place. The Indian motorcycle separation remains on track to be accretive by approximately $50 million to adjusted EBITDA with the benefit weighted more toward the back half of the year and into January '27 due to the seasonality of motorcycle sales. We are also raising full year adjusted EPS guidance to $3.50 to $3.60 from $3 to $3.10. This includes $1.09 from the tariff refunds recorded in the second and third quarters. Excluding tariff refunds, operational adjusted EPS is expected to be $2.40 to $2.50 compared with our July 28 guidance revision of $2.05 to $2.15. This increase reflects our strong third quarter performance and additional improvement in the underlying business relative to our July expectations. Our guidance does not include any additional tariff refunds. While we believe there may be opportunities to recover additional amounts, a formal process for the next phase of refunds has not been established. The timing and amount of any further recovery is uncertain and certain amounts would need to be recovered from suppliers. Our full year guidance implies fourth quarter adjusted EPS of $0.32 to $0.42, reflecting, in part, the approximately $0.30 of earnings that shifted from the fourth quarter into the third quarter. We expect fourth quarter earnings to be supported by net price in the separation of Indian motorcycle, somewhat offset by higher commodity and logistics costs. In closing, our strong third quarter results and increased full year outlook reflect the continued momentum across our business and the disciplined execution of our teams. We are delivering meaningful operational margin expansion, strengthening our balance sheet and positioning the company to exit the year with net leverage below 2x. While commodity and logistics costs remain headwinds, we are confident in the underlying fundamentals of the business and the actions we are taking to drive further progress in 2027. With that, I'll turn the call back over to Mike. Go ahead, Mike.

Thanks, Bob. Before wrapping up, I want to spend a few minutes on how we're thinking about 2027. While it's still early and we're not providing formal guidance today, there are several factors that give us confidence in the continued progress of the business. First, we expect to maintain the same disciplined approach to dealer inventory that has served us well with production and shipments aligned closely with retail demand. At the same time, we are preparing to bring innovative new products to market across our core businesses while continuing to capitalize on the consumer shift toward cab units. From an operating perspective, we expect commodity costs to be a meaningful headwind given current prices on steel, diesel and aluminum in addition to logistics. But we also see continued opportunities to drive productivity, operational efficiencies and expense leverage to help offset a portion of these elevated costs. Our manufacturing facilities are currently running at roughly 70% of capacity and we continue to expand Lean to improve our efficiency. As volume recover -- as volumes recover, that available capacity should provide a meaningful incremental margin opportunity. We also remain focused on executing our tariff mitigation strategy, including meeting our targets of reducing our exposure to China by the end of 2027. Finally, we expect our improving earnings and cash flow profile to support a healthy balance sheet, and we intend to manage net leverage within our 1x to 2x target range. Operating within that range gives us more flexibility to enhance our return of capital to shareholders. So while we're operating in an unsettled macroeconomic world, we believe the actions we have taken over the past several years have put Polaris in a much better position to manage through volatility and drive improved financial performance over the long term. With 1 quarter to go, our priorities remain consistent. The overall retail market has played out slightly better than we originally expected. Growth remains volatile, but utility continues to outperform. We had originally called for the retail environment to be flattish year-over-year, but now expected to grow low single digits. And while uncertainty remains in the broader economy, the trends we have seen through the third week of October give us confidence that we can have a strong ending to the year. We continue to build and ship products at the same pace as retail and expect this strategy to hold true for the foreseeable future. As I noted earlier, we are shipping three important new products this quarter: the RZR Pro R Boost, Polaris Expedition with Numatix and the Sportsman 500. Early feedback from dealers and customers has been very encouraging, and we believe that Pro R Boost and new expedition can help provide a lift in recreational sales. We remain ahead of our internal targets regarding our tariff mitigation strategy with an expected 9% of material cost of goods sold originating from China by year-end. This is down from approximately 14% at the beginning of the year and our ultimate goal is to have these costs below 5% by year-end 2027. Our focus and execution this year drove these results and allowed us to raise guidance for the third time. Our strategy is unchanged and our foundation is stronger. We are a different company than we were 5 years ago. We are more focused. Our manufacturing facilities are more efficient. Our dealer inventory is healthy, and our portfolio increasingly serves customers who rely on our products for work as well as play. Dealers see the change as do customers and employees and increasingly, it is showing up in our results. Polaris is the leader in powersports, and I'm confident we have the strategy, portfolio and operating foundation to deliver higher earnings power and stronger returns over time. With that, I'll turn the call over to Chad to open the line for questions.

[Operator Instructions]. And the first question will be from Joe Altobello from Raymond James.

First question, I want to kind of talk about your rental margins for next year, right? If we assume modest unit growth, let's say, how do you see incremental margins playing out given all the puts and takes you just laid out, Mike?

Yes. So -- well, first of all, good morning, Joe. The incremental margins were pretty heavily impacted in the third quarter. There was obviously a little bit of incremental tariff costs. Third quarter of last year is when tariff costs had really ramped up for us. The third quarter really saw the impact of commodities. And as we mentioned in the prepared remarks, the commodities really have ramped up and we expect that to be a bit of a headwind as we get into next year. Now the good news is we've been making substantial improvements in the business in terms of just how efficient the factories are operating. The team, as I indicated in my prepared remarks, has done an excellent job of pulling content out of China. Pulling that supply chain back into North America primarily, which is going to help from a tariff perspective. It's early for us to make a lot of comments around what we expect incrementals to be going into next year. But I think we've -- we've got the business position. I mean it's a bit frustrating because the incremental tariffs, the incremental commodities, those things are eating away at the margins. And I would just remind you that ex the $215 million of tariffs or margins would almost be 2 points higher than where they are today. And obviously, Bob can fill in some of the blanks that I skipped over.

Yes, Joe. I mean I think the biggest thing we'll start to lack the tariffs going into next year. And as of right now, we don't expect dramatic changes in the overall tariff load on the company. There's some incrementals. Some of that is going to be offset by the stuff we've moved out of China. So absent any changes, there is still a 301 investigation out there on excess capacity. I don't think anything will happen with that until after the midterms. But once the bid terms are over, I think it's pretty tough to predict where that one will go. But if that doesn't change the picture, I think our tariff picture will be relatively flattish next year as compared to this year. And so the big the bigger headwind is going to continue to be commodities. And when we say commodities, we include trucking in that because it is a big part of it right now, the linehaul side is almost as big as the diesel side with trucking shortages. So we talked about having about $50 million of headwind in the second half of '26. So most of this really ramped up in the back half of the year. It was about $70 million for the full year. Some of that was offset by hedge. So as we look at the first half of next year, I think the commodity headwind is going to be in that $70 million range. And it's really tough to predict after that. The commodity curves as they sit here today, would show some improvement, particularly in steel and diesel in the back half of the year. But the reality is we've watched those curves push out the last few months. And so we'll just have to see how that early to get into that. But certainly, in the first half of the year, I think we'll see less tariff headwind, a little more commodity headwind than we did this year.

And Joe, the other thing I -- it's obviously not related to cost, but it's a critical component. I mean think about the comments that we've made about the utility portion of our portfolio, the exposure we have. If you look at things like the Dodge Momentum Index, the level of construction activity, commercial construction activity isn't anticipated to abate anytime soon. And increasingly, our vehicles are being used more and more in that type of environment. And we've got a dealer meeting in February of next year. We're also going to have an Investor Day in February of next year, early February of next year. And if you think about that's on the heels of having a dealer meeting in August where we launched three incredible products. So there's more to come. And I'm convinced with the new products and the exposure we have from a utility standpoint. The business is looking at a good environment as we head into next year despite the fact the discretionary spending pressures still remain and the direct markets could remain under a little bit of pressure. The balance of our portfolio, I think, really helps out and gives us the opportunity to get more volumes through the factories and drive that incremental leverage to help address some of the increasing costs we're seeing that Bob outlined.

Yes. The other piece to think about is we've had really good operational performance at the factories. I think the what happened in Huntsville in the third quarter, we had hedged our bets a little bit coming into the quarter as we implemented a new lean line there. Mike and I have both been down there. The team did just a great job coming up to speed on that line and getting to some of the highest levels of first pass yield on vehicles that we've seen. So we were able to pull a little bit more Ranger into the quarter. We had thought we were going to be pretty tight on Ranger shipments in the quarter, and we were able to do a little better than that. But I think it shows that the benefits that we're getting from Lean are real. And like we've talked about, I mean, we're kind of in the World Series time, so we're kind of in the third inning-ish of a 9-inning game. And so there's a lot more to go. So whether we'll be able to fully offset commodities, we'll have to see as we get into budgeting for the full year, but I expect to see continued improvement on that side also.

Very helpful. And just a follow-up and somewhat related. Promotion intensity, is that a good guy or a bad guy next year on margins?

Well, I mean, certainly, the fact that we've continued to keep dealer inventory in a good spot. Retail velocity was up again. This past quarter, we were up about 19%. So we're moving product faster. And I think -- I mean, look, we've done a better job of making sure that we've got the right inventory at the dealers. The current noncurrent mix is incredibly important. And then, quite frankly, having leading innovation takes significant pressure off from a promotional perspective. And so it's early to have a perspective as we head into next year. But certainly, we're trying to set the business up through a combination of the innovation, the product mix as well as just overall dealer inventory levels that we're going to keep promotional pressure abated and hopefully look to continue to drive that down as a percentage of sales.

The next question will be from James Hardiman from Citi.

I wanted to continue along sort of the same lines as we think about 2027, I think I have all the moving pieces, right? Obviously, the three biggest would be the commodity and freight inflation, the efficiencies that you talked about and then tariffs, it sounds like tariffs are basically going to be a wash, right? The annualization is a bad guy. The lower reliance on China is a good guy, and it's a little bit unclear, which is going to be bigger at this point. the inflation versus the efficiencies. I guess, a, is that all right? Is that all accurate? Because you just gave us a lot of answer to Joe's questions. But then as I just look at The Street for next year, which was assuming a lot of growth on a reported basis and the fact that we need to be backing out sounds like about $1.09 of tariffs. I guess do you think you'll be able to grow on a reported basis next year? Obviously, I think you think you can grow on an operating basis, right, ex tariffs, but I'm just trying to understand if The Street expectation is too aggressive as we sit here today.

Yes, I think -- so James, a couple of comments on the tariffs. I mean I'd remind you there still is an open 301 investigation around excess manufacturing. And so that is an unknown. I think net of anything happening there we look at tariffs as kind of a push. I mean, obviously, we're working hard and we're confident with the work that we've got underway to get sourcing out of China. So that will take some tariff cost out. But obviously, we were in China because the costs were less. So we're moving into areas where it's going to cost a little bit more. So I think it's going to probably be a net push when you look at just the tariff, tariff mitigation, excluding whatever happens on 301 excess manufacturing. I do think the estimates are high next year. And I think part of that is we know a number of analysts have not backed the AEPA refunds out. And that's obviously a big part of the performance this year in terms of getting the $80-plus million worth of refunds in and the impact that that's had on EPS. When you talk about can we grow next year from a top line standpoint. Obviously, it's early to be giving guidance, but I do feel confident for the factors that I outlined when answering Joe's questions around promo. We've got some incredible new product in the market that we launched this year that obviously will cycle into next year. And then we've got a dealer meeting in February. So that should give you some hints that there's yet more to come. And I think that, coupled with our exposure to the utility markets and specifically around some of the commercial construction activity that's going on, I feel good about that growth trajectory. It's a bit early Bob gave you some color around the commodity pressure that we're facing. What's tough for us is what's going to happen in the back half of next year from a commodity standpoint, things could move down as quickly as they came up. A lot of that is going to really depend on what's going on in the broader macro and it's anybody's guess where we think things are at. So we're going to continue doing the things that have served us well. We're going to stay focused on everything we can control. We didn't really talk much about it, but in addition to the factories operating better, our quality, we are now either amongst the top, if not the top, in power sports from a quality standpoint. And that serves us incredibly well in terms of taking warranty costs down, improving the satisfaction with customers. And you couple that with all the new products and the exposure to the end markets we have. I feel good about the top line as we head into 2027.

Got it. That's really helpful. And maybe a simpler question that you may or may not choose to answer, but any color you can give us on sort of as we think about retail, which RVs were up against a really difficult compare last year. Maybe just any color on sort of how that went over the course of the quarter. And then you talked about October being in line with expectations. I don't know where your expectations were, but any color there Obviously, we saw an interest rate hike and consumer confidence. It seems like it's getting worse, but it doesn't sound like you're seeing much of that in the numbers so far here in October.

Yes. I mean think about October in the low single digits, which is aligned with what we were expecting. I think third quarter was a tale of a different journey. I mean we started out with a tough July. I think that was probably something that had been talked about more broadly, not just specific to power sports. And then we picked up momentum as the quarter went on. I think the affordability report that you put out, I think kind of sums it up. I mean, the RV space is facing, I think, a different set of challenges. And then quite frankly, the fact that we've got 60% of our portfolio, that's really outside of the rec exposure category. And that's not to say that people who buy a Ranger on their farm aren't using it to go hunting and fishing. But the vehicle has multiple uses. And then when you index that with the commercial construction that's going on and the number of vehicles that we have that are being bought by contractors as well as rental companies that are going into their fleets to support the work that they're doing on a range of projects, I think that puts us in a little bit different position. So we're encouraged with what we've seen in October. And as I said in my prepared remarks, we're -- we believe we're set up to have a good strong end to the year.

The next question is from Gerrick Johnson from Seaport Research Partners.

I wanted to dig into the shifts between the third and fourth quarter. How much -- you gave us the bottom line impact, but what was the top line impact of snowmobile shipping early as well as the Ranger? And then also on inventory I would expect seasonal inventory to grow at the dealer level. But on Page 5, it looks like it declined. So talk about the dynamics in seasonal inventory and also what inventory would be without snowmobile shipping early in the third quarter.

Yes. So Gerrick, if you think about the snow and the Ranger timing from a revenue perspective, it's about split in a $30-ish million of snow and a little bit more than that of Ranger. So not massive, but meaningful. And like as we talked about, that was really just performance of the factory and then the fact that we had low seasonal inventory. And the reason inventory -- dealer inventory is down in the quarter is purely seasonal as we cleaned up a fair number of the old model year slides kind of earlier this year. And what we saw in the quarter was some growth in Ranger and a little bit in a channel fill on the rec side, Ranger because of strong sales and really inventory not growing quite as fast as the sales just because we had to deal with the new line in Huntsville, which again performed better than we expected but was still -- we knew we were going to be a little tight on Ranger in the quarter. And then with the channel fill on expedition, starting to ship Boost, that drove a little bit of rec growth, we think that will level itself out by the time we get to the end of Q4.

Okay. Great. So on seasonal, it's the fact that you cleared out way more noncurrent than you shipped in currents early leading to...

And we've also seen SnowCheck pickups at a greater pace than I think we were expecting. We were just with the dealer council last week, and they were very appreciative of the fact that we had shipped in early because it allows them to spend time getting the snowmobile set up, getting them to consumers who've preordered. So it worked out well for us all around.

Yes. I mean, and snowmobile shipping in Q3 is something that kind of the rest of the industry has done for a while. We have not been able to execute to do that in the last few years. And I think now we've got our Roseau facility and snow team running a lot better and that allowed us to pull that up and deliver. Like Mike said, that was possible to be received by the dealers. We still had a pretty small snow build this year, with an effort of trying to keep dealer inventory at the right level and really limit the amount of carryovers we have of -- into the new model year. So the team's executing really well on that side.

Okay. Understood. And just lastly for me. International seems soft even if you exclude Goupil and Aixam. So why was that underperforming versus North America?

Yes. I think a lot of challenges. Obviously, a lot of distraction in Europe right now. So the European markets were relatively slow. And then really just a little bit of timing as we get dealer inventory. We're getting more sophisticated about our international dealer inventory and market share and our ability to measure some of that. And so we've really been focused on taking some of what we learned on the U.S. side in terms of sales, inventory and operations planning, taking that to international and making sure we've got dealer inventory rightsized around the world. So some of that had a little bit of timing impact in the quarter.

The next question is from Craig Kennison from Baird.