Earnings from HOG and UNH

This morning, Harley-Davidson (HOG) reported earnings of 97 cents a share, one penny better than expectations. The Hogs are particularly popular overseas:

Worldwide retail sales of Harley-Davidson motorcycles grew 6.4 percent for the quarter. Shipments grew 6 percent to 92,848 units. Domestically, sales were up only 0.3 percent, but Harley estimated the overall heavyweight motorcycle market was down 1.7 percent for the quarter. Overseas, sales of the iconic bikes were up 29.4 percent, with Canada seeing an increase of 37.4 percent and Europe, an increase of 31.2 percent for the quarter.

UnitedHealth Group (UNH) reported earnings of $1.2 billion. The company didn’t release an earnings-per-share figure because it’s still trying to untangle the stock options mess. As I’ve said before, most of these problems are over. The only impact is that we don’t know exactly what the historical results were. This will probably hang over the stock, but it has zero impact on current operations. The company is doing very well. I think it’s very likely that UNH will make as much as $3.50 a share this year, which means that it’s going for less than 16 times earnings. That’s a good price.

Posted by on January 18th, 2007 at 8:51 am


The information in this blog post represents my own opinions and does not contain a recommendation for any particular security or investment. I or my affiliates may hold positions or other interests in securities mentioned in the Blog, please see my Disclaimer page for my full disclaimer.