Harley-Davidson is in a bit of an earnings funk, as its signature motorcycles aren't as popular as they used to be. Although Wall Street appears to be as bullish as ever on HOG stock.


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While 113-year-old Harley still holds the top spot in the U.S. motorcycle sales market, foreign competition is vying for a share of the market, and its third-quarter earnings slid on weaker demand, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Also in its third quarter, motorcycle revenue fell 2.9 percent to $788.9 million, while shipments dipped a larger 9.1 percent. Overall profit for the quarter hit $114.1 million compared to $140.3 million the same time last year. Motorcycle and accompanying products revenue fell $500 million to $1.09 billion.

The motorcycle industry in general is in a funk, so Tuesday's earnings report came as no surprise to investors. Earnings per share was at 64 cents, which met analysts' expectations. And the company continued to please analysts by reaffirming plans to cut 200 jobs across the U.S., with most of that coming in the fourth quarter.

Despite the earnings miss, owners of HOG stock are still happy; Harley-Davidson stock is up about 10 percent on the year, and was up 3.5 percent in trading on Tuesday morning.

HOG won't likely be the only automotive company turning heads this week. Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla Motors, teased a "product unveiling" on Twitter for Monday, though pushed it back to Wednesday citing " a few more days of refinement." This follows a disappointing recent Model S variant announcement that actually cost the CEO $500 million in just one day.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/topst...ore/ar-AAj6erC