« The Yield Curve | Main | Donaldson Increases Dividend 10% »

Harley-Davidson (HOG) reported Q4 earnings of 78 cents a share, four cents below estimates. Last year, HOG made 97 cents for the fourth quarter. The numbers are ugly:

Worldwide retail sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles were down 6.1 percent in the quarter, and 14.2 percent in the U.S. The company said the domestic heavyweight motorcycle market was down 9 percent in the quarter. Overseas, Harley's sales were up 17.4 percent.

Harley's shipments were down 12.5 percent to 81,206 units, a drop of 11,642 units.

For the year, profit fell to $933.8 million, or $3.74 a share, from $1.04 billion, or $3.93 a share, in 2006. Revenue slipped 1.3 percent to $5.73 billion from $5.8 billion in 2006.

Worldwide sales fell 1.8 percent in 2007, while U.S. sales were down 6.2 percent. The overall heavyweight market was down 5 percent for the year, Harley said. Internationally, Harley's sales finished the year up 13.7 percent.

Shipments for the year were down 5.3 percent to 330,619 motorcycle units, from 349,196 bikes in 2006. Harley-Davidson cut its bike shipments in the wake of expected falling sales and even idled its plants for a week in November.

HOG expects EPS growth of 4% to 7% this year which is more optimistic than analysts.

Posted by edelfenbein at January 25, 2008 12:27 PM