CHICAGO, July 17 (Reuters) - U.S. motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson Inc reported better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, as international sales growth offset weakness in its key U.S. market, sending shares higher in early trading.
The earnings beat came despite rising fuel prices, tighter lending standards and falling homes prices, all of which have weighed on U.S. consumers and on demand for the power-sport industry’s products.
Harley reported a second-quarter net profit of $222.8 million, or 95 cents a share, a 23 percent decline from the $290.5 million, or $1.14 a share, profit it reported during the comparable quarter last year.
Sales fell 2.9 percent to $1.57 billion.
Even so, the results were better than Wall Street expected. Analysts, on average, expected the Milwaukee-based company to report earnings of 75 cents a share on sales of $1.41 billion, according to Reuters Estimates.
As a result, its shares shares rose as much as 6.4 percent to $38.48 before the bell.
In April, Harley warned it would slash production, lay off hundreds of workers and report full-year earnings well below its forecast as a result of the economic slowdown.
So topping expectations for the quarter soothed some of Wall Street’s near-term concerns.
“It was definitely not as bad a quarter as some expected,” said Robin Diedrich, an analyst at Edward Jones. “The key there was shipments.”
Despite the earnings beat, Harley said it lost market share during the quarter.
That made some analysts, like Robin Farley at UBS and Ed Aaron at RBC Capital Markets, skeptical that Harley would be able to build on its earnings beat.
“Our concerns over end-market demand are unchanged,” Aaron said in a note to investors.
BEATING THE STREET
In beating expectations, Harley joined a raft of other companies that reported better-than-expected earnings on Thursday, easing concerns that a weak economy and the ongoing credit crisis would stifle corporate profits.
While Harley warned that the economic conditions in the United States would “continue to create challenges at least through the end of the year,” it reiterated its forecast for full-year earnings per share of $3.00 to $3.18, a decrease of between 15 to 20 percent from 2007.
Worldwide retail sales of its bikes fell 3.6 percent during the quarter, pulled down by an 8.7 percent decrease in U.S. retail sales. Harley acknowledged that the U.S. heavyweight motorcycle market actually grew during the quarter, meaning the company’s market share shrank.
The company said international retail sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles, which grew 11.2 percent during the quarter, helped offset the decline in sales in the United States — by far its biggest market.
Sales of parts, accessories, apparel and memorabilia also rose during the quarter, helping offset some of the U.S. weakness.
Canadian retail sales of its bikes were up 8.7 percent during the quarter, while European sales rose 9 percent and sales in the Asia-Pacific region were up 7.3 percent.
But Aaron at RBC said the international sales growth, helped by the weak U.S. dollar, was moderating and that he expected “further slowing as currency comparisons become somewhat tougher and economic weakness” spreads overseas.
~ LasVegasChoppers.com
