Harley-Davidson Inc. Ticks Up On Unexpectedly High Q4 Revenue

Harley-Davidson Inc.

shares ticked up in early trading Thursday after the company posted unexpectedly high revenue and on flat fourth quarter earnings. The Milwaukee-based company, whose earnings were in line with earlier estimates, changed hands recently up nearly 2 percent at $63.39. Harley-Davidson expects worldwide shipments of motorcycles in the first quarter of between 79,000 and 84,000 units, compared with 80,682 in the year-ago period. For all of 2015, worldwide shipments will grow between 4 percent and 6 percent to 282,000 to 287,000 units, the company said. The company didn't immediately offer an earnings outlook, but said it expects a full-year 2015 operating margin of 18 percent to 19 percent for its motorcycles segment. Full-year 2014 operating margin rose to 18 percent, from 16.6 percent in 2013. Dealers worldwide sold 47,149 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the fourth quarter of 2014, up 2.8 percent from 45,875 in the year-ago quarter. In the U.S., dealers sold 26,957 new Harley-Davidson motorcycles in the recent quarter, down 1.6 percent from 27,387 motorcycles a year ago. Net income in the recent fourth quarter fell slightly to $74.5 million, or 35 cents a share, from $75.4 million, or 34 cents a share a year earlier. Revenue was nearly flat at $1.2 billion, compared with $1.19 billion a year earlier. Wall Street expected earnings of $0.34 cents a share on revenue of $1.06 billion.