MILWAUKEE – Shares of Harley-Davidson were up about 7% Thursday afternoon after the company released its 2nd Quarter earnings report earlier in the day.
That report showed that revenue was down 4% in April – June, but earnings were better than expected.
The company cited a plant shutdown which happened in mid-May for the decline in revenue, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal’s Rich Kirchen.
“Harley announced in May that they were going to close down their plants in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania for two weeks, but it ended up being more like two and a half weeks, because of an unspecified problem with a third-party supplier,” Kirchen said.
That unspecified problem turned out to be an issue with the breaks system.
“They also did say that it was approximately 12,000 fewer motorcycles that were procuded during that period,” Kirchen said.
Despite those numbers, the strong earnings report meant good news for investors.
“Well certainly investors key on earnings,” Kirchen said. “They also look at something like the company saying they’re going to continue buying back stock, which increases the value of shares.”
“And probably the revenue number being down four percent wasn’t as bad as some people thought so that was probably better than expectations,” Kirchen said.
You can listen to the entire interview with Rich Kirchen from the Milwaukee Business Journal in the player at the top of the page.
