On today's earnings conference call, Harley-Davidson Inc. (NYSE: HOG) CEO Jim Ziemer sounded an upbeat note, attributing most of the softness in the company's 1st quarter results to the recent strike.

He also repeatedly explained that 1st quarter results have not historically been a predictor of year-end results.

Some interesting info from the presentation:

• The company projects EPS to recover in 2008-9, growing 11-17% each year.
• The labor contract for its Kansas City plant is up on August 1, and the Milwaukee mother ship comes up for renewal next spring. Will the settlement of the York contract make subsequent negotiations easier?
• While production was down by almost 12,000 bikes in the 1st quarter, the company will only increase production by 4-7,000 units in the 2nd quarter. The CEO tiptoed around the question about inventory build at the dealer level, but this could be a factor. He pointed out that they have shipped a 1,000 more bikes post-strike than originally projected.
  
  
  

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Harley-Davidson optimistic despite soft 1st quarter originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 19 Apr 2007 13:48:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.