The venerable Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) sputtered through another dismal quarter as reported today. Even Warren Buffett's recent vote of confidence in the form of purchasing $300 million of HOG debt wasn't enough to pretty up a year/year decline in worldwide sales of 12%, and sales this quarter last year were well below the previous year. The company did ship 3.9% more bikes to dealers than in 2008, when dealers were sitting on large stocks of unsold units, but it anticipates shipping 10-13% fewer bikes overall in 2009 than 2008.
Domestic sales dropped 9.7%. Diluted earning reported were $.50, below analyst expectations and down from $.79 Q1 of 2008. Revenue for the quarter was $1.01 billion, down only $2.7 million from same quarter 2008. General merchandise, usually a steady cash-generator for the company, also fell by 10.5% from a year ago.
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