Dividend.com: Harley-Davidson Beats Street

Harley-Davidson First-Quarter Profit Falls, but Adjusted Earnings Beat Estimates

Shares of famous motorcycle maker Harley-Davidson (HOG Quote) rallied Thursday, on the heels of a positive first-quarter earnings report that easily beat analyst expectations on an adjusted basis.

The Milwaukee-based company said that its first-quarter profit was $117.3 million, or 50 cents per share, compared with $187.6 million, or 79 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. Revenue fell 2% to $1.29 billion.

However, the company said its earnings were negatively impacted by a few one-time items, including restructuring costs and a tax law change in Wisconsin. Excluding these special one-time charges, which totaled $57.4 million, the company saw adjusted earnings of 59 cents per share.

On average, Wall Street analysts expected EPS of 51 cents on revenue of $1.28 billion.

Harley said that worldwide sales of its products dropped 12% year over year, while U.S. sales fell 9.7%. Despite the environment remaining "challenging" throughout 2009, the company reaffirmed its estimates to ship 264,000 and 273,000 motorcycles to dealers worldwide this year, which is 10%-13% lower than 2008 levels.

Harley also said it will be forced to cut 300 to 400 jobs in 2009 and 2010, which is lower than the 800 it originally anticipated.

Harley shares rose $1.67, or +9.75%, in late morning trading Thursday.

We removed shares of HOG from our "Recommended" list back on Sept. 29, when the stock was trading at $40.04. The stock has a dividend yield of 2.34%, based on last night's closing stock price of $17.13.