Harley-Davidson Earnings Preview

Investors hope Harley-Davidson (NYSE: HOG  ) will top analyst estimates once again after beating predictions by $0.11 in the previous quarter. The company will unveil its latest earnings on Tuesday. Harley-Davidson manufactures motorcycles as well as motorcycle parts and accessories.

What analysts say:
 

• Buy, sell, or hold?: The majority of analysts back Harley-Davidson as a buy. But with 60% of analysts rating it a buy, Harley-Davidson is still below the mean analyst rating of its nearest nine competitors, which average 80% buys. Analysts still rate the stock a moderate buy, but they are a bit more wary about it compared to three months ago.
• Revenue forecasts: On average, analysts predict $1.29 billion in revenue this quarter. That would represent a rise of 18.3% from the year-ago quarter.
• Wall Street earnings expectations: The average analyst estimate is earnings of $0.74 per share. Estimates range from $0.60 to $0.81.

What our community says:
CAPS All-Stars are solidly backing the stock with 84.8% assigning it an outperform rating. The community at large agrees with the All-Stars with 78.1% awarding it a rating of outperform. Fools are keen on Harley-Davidson and haven't been shy with their opinions lately, logging 925 posts in the past 30 days. Harley-Davidson's bearish CAPS rating of two out of five stars falls short of the Fool community sentiment.

Management:
The company's revenue has now risen for two straight quarters.

Now let's look at how efficient management is at running the business. Traditionally, margins represent the efficiency with which companies capture portions of sales dollars. The following table shows gross, operating, and net margins over the past four quarters.

Quarter	Q2	Q1	Q4	Q3
Gross Margin	42.1%	41.9%	40.4%	43.9%
Operating Margin	20.1%	15.8%	3.4%	12.1%
Net Margin	12.7%	9.7%	(4.3%)	7.1%

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