Tag Archives: shares

Motorcycle News, News

Harley boss buys up millions in shares

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New Harley-Davidson boss Jochen Zeitz has bought about $US2 ($A2.8) million of company shares just weeks after announcing a 30% cut in coming models and three months after buying $2.1m ($A2.9) in shares.

It’s a huge vote of confidence in his austere “Hardwire” strategy for the company which also includes cutting 700 jobs globally.

Shares

On Wednesday (12 August 2020), Jochen bought 71,450 Harley-Davidson shares at an average per-share price of $27.86.

In early May, he paid $US2.1 million for 97,850 Harley-Davidson shares at an average per-share price of $21.26.

These are the first purchases of company shares by a Harley-Davidson insider since 2017.

He now owns about almost 300,000 shares in a personal account.

In the past six months, Harley shares have dropped from 35.87c to 15.04 in April and then steadily rising to 27.96c.

Jochen was announced as CEO on 8 May 2020 after becoming interim CEO when former CEO Matt Levatich was sacked in February. 

Matt Levatich Harley-Davidson CEOP and president boss Hog
Levatich in Australia last year

When he became interim CEO, Jochen implemented measures to ride out the pandemic recession including he and fellow board members forgoing salary/cash compensation.

The measures also include cutting back on all non-essential spending, temporary salary reductions, 30% reduction in executive leadership, 10-20% reduction for US salaried employees, no merit increases for 2020 and no new staff until further notice.

Jochen also announced his plan five-year strategy which he called “Rewire”.

Last month he changed it to “Hardwire” with the following five main strategies:

  1. Reorganisation of the company structure and a new marketing strategy toward freedom, led by Hollywood action star and Harley fan Jason Momoa;
  2. Cuts in model lines and 2021 models delayed from September to early 2021 (click here to read more);
  3. More emphasis on merchandise and bike accessories;
  4. Pulling out of some international markets (click here to read more); and
  5. Cutbacks on production to promote exclusivity and avoid discounting.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com

Motorcycle News, News

Harley-Davidson bosses buy up shares

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Two senior Harley-Davidson executives, including new CEO and president Jochen Zeitz have bought up millions of dollars of company shares.

The move follows the recent announcement of first-quarter results earnings which revealed a global 17.7% drop to 40,430 motorcycle sales, 20.5% crash in overseas sales (16,707) and a 15.5% domestic slide (23,732).

Harley shares have dropped 48.6% this year.

Jochen was announced as CEO on 8 May 2020 after becoming interim CEO when former CEO Matt Levatich was sacked in February. Since then, stock has slid another 37.2%.

Matt Levatich Harley-Davidson CEOP and president boss HogLevatich in Australia last year

Shares

On May 5, senior VP and CFO John A. Olin bought 13,500 shares of HOG stock at the average price of $19.02 for a total of $256,770.

The day after being announced CEO, Jochen paid $US2.1 million for 97,850 Harley-Davidson shares at an average per-share price of $21.26.

Since then the stock has bobbled around and closed on Wall St at $US19.66.

These are the first such purchases of share by a Harley-Davidson insider since 2017.

Jochen also converted the 3.7 million share units he was awarded from his service as a director into the equivalent amount of stock.

He now owns 100,450 Harley-Davidson shares in a personal account, along with 225,403 restricted stock units and 22,612 share units.

The stock purchase is his first open-market buy since joining the company’s board in 2007.

Harley-Davidson teaching town of Ryder to rideHarley-Davidson Museum

Salary

There is no statement from Harley about the share purchases and no record of Jochen’s salary.

However, the previous boss was paid a record $11m last year.

When he became interim CEO, Jochen implemented measures to ride out the pandemic recession including he and fellow board members forgoing salary/cash compensation.

The measures also include cutting back on all non-essential spending, temporary salary reductions, 30% reduction in executive leadership, 10-20% reduction for US salaried employees, no merit increases for 2020 and no new staff until further notice.

Jochen is also implementing his plan five-year strategy which he calls “Rewire”.

It involves expanding “profitable iconic heritage bikes” while committing to branching out to adventure touring, the new Streetfighter range and electric motorcycles.

However, last week he delayed the August 2020 launch of the new an America adventure bike and water-cooled Bronx streetfighter until next year.

It will be interesting to see what the market makes of the bosses’ stock buyout. It certainly shows belief in the company’s future.

Together wth the five-year plan, it also shows tis is not a get-rich-quick manoeuvre.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com

Motorcycle News, News

Motorcycle sales up, but shares slump

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Shares in Australia’s biggest motorcycle dealership conglomerate, MotorCycle Holdings, reports increase revenue and bike sales, yet shares have dropped 13.7% to a six-month low.

MotorCycle Holdings, which owns TeamMoto dealerships among others and Cassons accessories, released its six-month results showing new motorcycle sales were up 1% while the total Australian new bike/ATV/scooter market fell 6.1% last year.

The report says their used bike sales were up 6.2% compared with the same period in 2019 and overall sales of new and used were up 3.5%.

Acquisitions

CEO David Ahmet says the company strategy is “growth through acquisitions and diversification”.

Last month, the company acquired rights to sell Indian motorcycles in six of its dealerships: Springwood in Brisbane, Nerang on the Gold Coast, Penrith and Auburn in western Sydney, and Keilor East and Dandenong in Melbourne.Indian Motorcycle Riders Group

It follows the announcement in January that Indian Motorcycle would close its factory owned dealerships in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth this year. A statement on a dealer to replace their Perth store is expected to be made “in the near future”.

MotorCycle Holdings also bought two dealerships in late 2019 which are claimed to be “outperforming expectations”.

The company now has 48 franchises operated from 31 dealerships and eight retail accessory locations in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and The Australian Capital Territory.

No interim dividend has been declared so the company can “take advantage of any acquisition opportunities that may arise”.

Shares slump

shares teammotoMotorcycle Holdings share price history

MotorCycle Holdings went public in 2016 at about $2.50 a share, reached a peak of $5.22 at the end of 2017 and hit a record low of around $1.25 in May last year.

The Indian announcement bumped the share price about 5c to $1.80.

However, it is now down to $1.50, despite a 31% increase in revenue to $178.2m.

Apart from the impact of bushfires and coronavirus, the problem seems to be that net profit after tax is now $4.8m for the half year compared with $5.2m for the 2019 comparative six months.

Ahmet says the overall new motorcycle market is beginning to stabilise.

However, January sales figures have actually dropped -10.2% on January 2019.

Source: MotorbikeWriter.com