Taking the Long View

Richard Edwards

› Director of Investor Relations 
› Polaris Industries, Inc., Medina
› Manufacturer of recreational vehicles
› NYSE: PII
› Market capitalization : $1.8 billion

››› On the investor side, guidance from the company helps. While they should be getting information from many sources, management input is important. Polaris gives yearly guidance, with updates on sales and earnings per share quarterly. In the short run, not giving guidance would most likely impact a company’s valuation in a negative way, but in the long run it will not. It is the company’s overall business model that will dominate over time.
 
››› Also, giving guidance will reduce analyst-estimate dispersion. They are going to have estimates anyway, so the question is, do you want them to do it on their own, or with the company’s help?

Jason Korstange

› Senior Vice President and Director of Corporate Communications
› TCF Financial Corporation
› Wayzata
› Financial holding company
› NYSE: TCB
› Market capitalization: $3.5 billion

››› We do not give quarterly guidance and only broadly on an annual basis. Why? Because, we do not want to be judged by a particular number. We don’t think it’s a proper scorecard for the company. Our approach is to give a lot of very detailed information during our earnings release every quarter, and to let the analysts do the work.

In addition, we do a number of investor conferences throughout the year. As such, we are very visible to the investor community. Analysts and investors are accepting of this, and we do not believe there has been any impact to the valuation of our stock.