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Harley-Davidson Unit Sales Slightly Down in Q1 2015

Harley-Davidson's unit sales went down a bit in the first quarter of the year, official sources report. On the somewhat funny side, the net income was bigger, despite a lower revenue for the same period. Apparently the forecasts for the year-end have also been adjusted, but with just over eight months left in 2015, it's still a long way to go.
2015 Dyna Wide Glide 1 photo
Photo: Harley-Davidson
H-D worldwide sales are down 1.3% in Q1 2015. The MoCo sold 56,661 new motorcycles in the first three months of the year, compared to 57,415 units moved in the same period of the previous year.

Bigger reduction in worldwide sales

In the domestic market, Harley-Davidson only lost 0,7 percent of the unit sales, moving 35,488 bikes compared to the year-ago period when 35,730 motorcycles were sold to final customers. This means that the worldwide sales were down by a more significant percentage overall. International markets saw 21,173 bikes sold in the first quarter of 2015, almost 2.7% less than the 21,685 figure of 2014.

While the US remains the biggest single market for Harley-Davidson, sales went 1.1% down in the Asia-Pacific region and 5.6% in the EMEA region. However Latin America posted a small 0.3% increase, while Canada saw the biggest leap forward, with 5.7 percent more H-D bikes sold than in Q1 2014.

In terms of money, first-quarter 2015 diluted earnings per share increased 5%, leading to a $4 million (€4.6 million) net income increase despite the $60 million (€55.4 million) decrease in revenue. Year-end forecasts have been reset from 4-6% up to 2-4 percent.

We are obviously waiting for Polaris to surface the figures for Indian and Victory, to see if and how they might have played a role in how Harley performed this quarter.
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