Pay attention, guys. Whether or not you are a Harley-Davidson bike fan or not, the numbers over the previous a number of years have not been good. That is not an opinion; that is a reality.
We did a Information Deep Dive piece on it in Q3 of 2024 as an example the traits over time, so if you have not been following the twists and activates a quarterly foundation, go test it out. However now it is February 2025, and the model’s full Annual Report for final 12 months is out. Did these loopy youngsters on Juneau Avenue handle to tug off a bottom-of-the-ninth, game-saving miracle in This autumn?
Sadly, they didn’t. And the numbers, they’re dangerous. Once more.
However how dangerous are they? Let’s simply say that if the MoCo was your little one, they usually got here residence from college with these numbers on their report card, you’d most likely floor them instantly. Sufficient waffling to attempt to soften the blow, although; let’s get into the numbers.
To maintain issues easy, we’ll speak about This autumn 2024 and the full-year 2024 outcomes individually.
We’ll begin with This autumn of 2024. As a reminder, Harley-Davidson’s monetary reviews break the corporate down into three distinct divisions. There’s Harley-Davidson Motor Firm (HDMC), which covers all the normal, combustion-powered bikes (and trikes), in addition to components and equipment. Then there’s Harley-Davidson Monetary Companies (HDFS), which covers financing of the autos it sells. Lastly, there’s LiveWire, which covers all its EV properties (that is LiveWIre and the StaCyc stability bike model for teenagers).
Harley-Davidson Motor Firm This autumn 2024 Outcomes
For This autumn of 2024, Harley-Davidson Motor Firm reported a complete income of $420 million. That may sound like quite a bit till you contemplate that it is down a complete 47% as in comparison with This autumn of 2023. Worse, HDMC additionally reported an working lack of $214 million.
In actual fact, of the three reporting divisions, solely HDFS noticed modest income development in This autumn of 2024. By how a lot? 4 p.c. Whereas that quantity by itself won’t be something to show cartwheels over, it positive beats the -47% income for HDMC and the -32% income for LiveWire. It is all relative, proper?
Taken collectively, meaning as a complete, Harley-Davidson’s This autumn 2024 revenues had been $688 million, which is down 35% over This autumn of 2023. Moreover, it reported a This autumn 2024 working earnings lack of $193 million.
However when you have a look at the total 2024 annual report, it is each higher and worse, relying in your perspective.
Harley-Davidson Motor Firm 2024 Annual Outcomes
For the whole lot of 2024, HDMC’s reported income was $4,122 million, which is down 15% year-on-year over 2023. Working earnings for the HDMC unit was $278 million, which is no less than within the black. Nonetheless, the place it seems distinctly not nice is in the way it compares to 2023. How dangerous is it? Working earnings is down by 58% as in comparison with 2023, which certainly needs to be making some firm accountants someplace gulp uncomfortably.
When taken in whole with the HDFS and LiveWire models, meaning Harley-Davidson took in $5,187 million in annual income for 2024, which is down 11% over 2023. Complete working earnings for 2024 was $417 million, which is down 47% over 2023. I will stress right here that these numbers are nonetheless within the black, but it surely’s definitely not the course that any firm needs to search out itself moving into.
2024 Harley-Davidson Bike Shipments and Gross sales
Now that we have talked about income and earnings figures, how did Harley-Davidson’s precise bike shipments and gross sales go in 2024? Additionally not nice. As a reminder, Harley-Davidson’s reviews separate bike shipments to sellers from bike retail gross sales to prospects, therefore the completely different figures represented right here.
Total, HDMC reviews that world bike shipments in 2024 totaled 148,862 bikes. That is down 17% as in comparison with 2023.
As for retail bike gross sales, these had been additionally down each in This autumn of 2024 and for the total 12 months of 2024, as effectively.
For This autumn of 2024, retail gross sales worldwide had been down 15%. In every of the 4 geographic areas that HDMC data gross sales, gross sales had been down damaging percentages throughout the board. North American gross sales had been down 13 p.c; Europe/the Center East/Africa gross sales had been down 7%; Asia Pacific gross sales had been down 26 p.c; and Latin America gross sales had been additionally down 7%.
For the entire of 2024, HDMC bike gross sales had been down 7% worldwide, which is barely higher than the This autumn 2024 quantity by itself. As for regional gross sales, North American gross sales had been down 4%; EMEA gross sales had been down 11%; Asia Pacific gross sales had been down 18%; and Latin America gross sales remained flat for the whole lot of 2024.
What Does This Imply For Harley-Davidson In 2025?
Along with releasing its This autumn 2024 and full 12 months 2024 figures, Harley-Davidson additionally issued its 2025 monetary steerage forward of the brand new 12 months. In line with the MoCo, it is anticipating revenues in 2025 to stay flat or be down by about 5% by the 12 months’s finish. The identical can also be true of its forecasted earnings per share.
Instances are powerful, however can Harley-Davidson climate them? Watch this area.
