Harley-Davidson results miss expectations, shipments fall

Harley-Davidson reported fourth-quarter profit and revenue that was worse than Wall Street expected as it shipped fewer motorcycles around the world. The company also said it expects shipments to be flat or down this year and its shares fell more than 3 percent before the stock market opened Tuesday.

Motorcycle shipments fell 12 percent to 42,414 in the fourth quarter compared with the same period a year ago. For 2017, the company expects shipments to be flat or down "modestly" compared with last year.

Overall, the Milwaukee-based company reported net income of $47.2 million, or 27 cents per share, in the three months ending Dec. 31, compared with $42.2 million, or 22 cents per share, in the same period a year before. The results missed Wall Street expectations of 32 cents per share, according to the average estimate of 12 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.

Revenue fell 7 percent to $933 million, which also missed Street forecasts. Eleven analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $985.7 million.

For the year, the company reported profit of $692.2 million, or $3.83 per share. Revenue was reported as $5.27 billion.

Shares of Harley-Davidson Inc. fell $1.92, or 3.3 percent, to $55.70 before the stock market opened Tuesday.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on HOG at https://www.zacks.com/ap/HOG

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Keywords: Harley-Davidson, Earnings Report