John A. Olin
Analyst · Deutsche Bank
Thanks Keith and good morning everyone, I’ll review the first quarter financial results starting on Slide 12. During the quarter, Harley-Davidson, Inc. consolidated revenue was up 9.9% to $1.73 billion. Our first quarter net income improved a $265.9 million, an increase of $41.8 million or 18.6%. Similarly diluted earnings per share rose to $1.21 per share up 22.2% from the year ago quarter. Operating income from the Motorcycle segment was $347.7 million, up 25.6% compared to last year's first quarter. The strong increase to Motorcycle business was driven by 11.1% increase in revenue behind a 7.3% increase in shipments. Motorcycle segment operating income also benefited from a higher gross margin percent, partially offset by higher year-over-year SG&A spending. As expected, operating income at Harley-Davidson Financial Services was down behind a higher provision for retail motorcycle loan losses. Also during the quarter, we had lower year-over-year interest expense largely offset by a higher tax rate. We're pleased with our first quarter financial results and look forward to the rest of the year. Now let's take a look at retail sales on Slide 13. Worldwide retail sales of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles were up 5.8% during the first quarter, driven by increases in both the U.S. and international markets. For the quarter, worldwide retail sales tracked below our expectation driven by very difficult weather conditions in the U.S. which we believe will primarily impact the timing of sales between the first and second quarters. We remain confident in our full year shipment expectations. Let's take a look at the U.S. market on Slide 14. Retail sales in the U.S. were up 3% in the first quarter. Even with the year-over-year increase, we believe U.S. retail sales in the first quarter were adversely impacted by two factors. First as we anticipated, the absence of the popular Road Glide models in the 2014 model year continued to impact year-over-year sales results. Road Glide represented about 10% of the U.S. retail sales in the first quarter of 2013. And second, we believe that extremely difficult weather conditions across the Eastern 2/3 has adversely impacted the timing of retail sales. We believe underlying demand for our model year 2014 motorcycles is strong, in particular demand for Project Rushmore touring motorcycles. In fact, overall Touring retail sales were up year-over-year despite the absence of Road Glide models this quarter. Street 500 motorcycles began shipping in late Q1 for dealer use in U.S. rider training. There is great dealer and customer excitement for our new street models. We expect street motorcycles to be available in the U.S for consumer sales beginning in late Q2. Finally as Keith noted, we received a strong reception to last month’s mid-model year introductions of yet another two models, the Dyna Low Rider and the Sportster Custom 1203 model.
: On Slide 15, you will see retail sales in our international markets grew 10.9% in the first quarter, and in our EMEA region Q1 retail sales were up 8.2% driven by growth across most of the European countries. This increase was aided by favorable year-over-year weather comparisons across most of Europe. Emerging markets within EMEA region continued to grow, reflecting our investment in the distribution network. In the first quarter, our 601+cc market share in Europe was 11.3% down 0.1 percentage points versus the same period last year. In the Asia-Pacific region, retail sales were up 25% in the first quarter, driven by growth in Japan, spurred by a consumption tax increase that went into effect on April 1st of this year. And which we believe pulled forward some sales into the first quarter. Emerging markets within the region were also up double digits during the quarter. Latin America region retail sales were up 8.9% in the quarter as a result of growth in both Brazil and Mexico. Finally, retail sales in Canada were down 2.4% in the first quarter which we believe is due to unusually harsh weather in that market. As we have discussed, we have been very focused on investing in our international businesses. Since 2009, we have targeted 100 to 150 international new dealer points through 2014. And since 2009, we have opened 120 with two-thirds being in emerging markets. On Slide 16, you’ll see wholesale shipments of Harley-Davidson motor cycles in the quarter were up 7.3% compared to last year. First quarter shipments finished toward high-end of our expected shipment range of 76,500 to 81,500 motorcycles. During the quarter, the mix of Touring motorcycles increased 3.2 percentage points from the prior year as we surged to meet expected spring demand for our new project Rushmore Touring motorcycles. Also during the quarter, shipment mix of our Street and Sportster category was up 1 percentage point in part driven by the initial shipments of our new Street motorcycles. We will continue to ramp up Street motorcycle production through Q2 and be up to speed during the second half of the year. On Slide 17, you’ll see revenue for the Motorcycles and Related Products segment was up 11.1% in the first quarter, behind a 7.3% increase in shipments. During the quarter, the average motorcycle revenue per unit increased $836 from the prior year primarily driven by higher pricing and favorable mix, partially offset by unfavorable currency impact. On average, our key currencies in the first quarter were weaker against the U.S dollar by approximately 3% compared to 2013. Parts and accessories sales were up 7.7% in the first quarter and general merchandize sales were down 11.1% as a result in the shift of promotions from Q1 of last year to Q2 of this year and lapping the 110th anniversary apparel and accessories sales in Q1 of 2013. On Slide 18, you’ll see gross margin in the quarter was 37.7% which was up 1.0 percentage points compared to last year. Volume, price, mix, currency, raw materials and manufacturing were all favorable for the quarter. During the quarter, mix was $17.2 million favorable behind a much higher mix of touring motorcycles compared to 2013. Looking forward, we expect mix will become unfavorable in the second half of the year as Street production increases. Foreign currency exchange adversely impacted revenue in the first quarter as a result of a sizable evaluation of the Yen, the Brazilian Real and the Australian Dollar on a year-over-year basis. However, despite the unfavorable impact of revenue, foreign currency exchange positively impacted gross margin by $5.2 million or approximately 0.6 percentage points of gross margin. The positive impact was driven by a favorable balance sheet revaluation as currencies rebounded within the first quarter of 2014. Manufacturing costs in Q1 reflect the benefits from increased year-over-year production and restructuring savings compared to last year’s first quarter. However, manufacturing costs were adversely impacted by startup costs associated with the launch of our new Street platform of motorcycles, which are being produced in Kansas City and India. We expect the startup costs for Street to continue into the second quarter. Q1 gross margin percentage exceeded our expectations. We originally expect the gross margin to be down slightly versus last year as a result of Street platform startup costs, as well as unfavorable currency exchange. While Street startup costs did adversely impact gross margin, our plants outperformed our expectations for seasonal surge ramp-up costs and foreign currency exchange significantly exceeded our expectations as we anticipated it would be a headwind to Q1 gross margin percent rather than a strong benefit. On Slide 19, operating margin as a percent of revenue in the first quarter was 22.1%, up 2.5 percentage points compared to last year’s first quarter. Operating income of $347.7 million for the quarter was favorably impacted by higher gross margin and the absence of restructuring expense, partially offset by higher SG&A spending. We’re very pleased with our ability to leverage both our gross margin and operating expenses in the first quarter. Going forward we will remain intensely focused on improving our cost structure and managing the business to be stronger, more flexible and more profitable. Now moving on to our financial services segment on Slide 20. In the first quarter HDFS’ operating profit of $63.2 million was $8.3 million or 11.7% lower than last year. The primary factors impacting first quarter results were; first, net interest income was unfavorable $0.9 million driven by lower yields on receivables due to increased competition, second, the provision for retail credit losses was unfavorable by $6.3 million due to higher retail credit losses and increase in the reserve rate and growth in retail receivables. As expected, the higher credit losses were impacted by lower recovery values of repossessed cycles following the launch of Rushmore models last fall and changing consumer behavior, and finally, the provision for wholesale credit losses was unfavorable by $1.1 million. Going forward, we continue to expect pressure on HDFS’ operating income as a result of modestly higher credit losses and tightening net interest margins due to increase in competition and higher year-over-year borrowing costs. Now, Larry will provide more detail on HDFS’ operations on Slide 21. Larry?