Despite the fact that global retail motorcycle sales were down 3% and North America retail performance was down 1%, Harley-Davidson Chairman, President and CEO Jochen Zeitz says The Motor Company is “pleased with our second quarter performance. Highlights include Touring and CVO retail sales up more than 12% in the U.S. market and 13% increase in revenue driven by global shipments of motorcycles. Zeitz concluded the Q2 call noting plans to repurchase $1 billion shares of stock through 2026.
“Despite a challenging market, we are pleased with our second quarter performance, in which we grew our U.S. market share in a declining market,” claims Zeitz. “Notable was unit growth of more than 11% in the important core category of Touring. We continue to be focused on executing our Hardwire strategy, leveraging our innovation and product pipeline while delivering on our cost productivity goals.”
Second Quarter 2024 Highlights
• Delivered diluted EPS of $1.63
• HDMC operating income margin of 14.7%
• North America motorcycle retail performance was down 1%, while retail sales of Touring and CVO motorcycles was up more than 12% in the U.S.
• Touring market share of 75% up 5.3% in first half of the year
• HDMC revenue up 13% driven by global motorcycle shipments up 16%
• HDFS operating income up 21%, and revenue was up 10%
However, the bottom line is that for the full year 2024, The Motor Company now expects:
• HDMC revenue to be down 5% to 9% compared to 2023.
• Operating income margin will be 10.6% to 11.6%
• HDFS operating income flat to up 5% compared to 2023
• LiveWire: electric motorcycle unit sales of 1,000 to 1,500 and an operating loss of $105 to $115 million