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Ahead of the Bell: Harley Davidson
Thursday, November 9, 2006 - By The Associated Press - Houston Cronical - chron.com



NEW YORK — Baird Equity Research and A.G. Edwards downgraded Harley Davidson Inc. Thursday saying the motorcycle maker's shares probably don't have much farther to run.

Shares fell $1.55, or 2.2 percent, to $70.60 in premarket trading. The stock has traded between $47.86 to $72.49 in the past 52 weeks.

Baird analyst J. David Cumberland cut his rating to "Neutral" from "Outperform," saying Harley Davidson's enjoyed a rally, up about 51 percent from a June low, and at $72.15 was ahead of his $72 target price at Wednesday's close on the New York Stock Exchange.

He thinks shares will stall in the off-season for motorcycle sales, but still expects Harley Davidson to deliver growth on product innovation, such as new entry-level bike designs, market expansion, operating efficiencies and a strong balance sheet.

"We would become more aggressive near-term buyers on pullbacks related to concerns about consumer spending and off-season dealer activity," he wrote, noting the stock has good long-term prospects.

A.G. Edwards analyst Timothy A. Conder downgraded the stock to "Hold" from "Buy" on share price, while lifting his target price to $74 from $73. He said the company has good sales prospects, a strong balance sheet and good managers.

Here's a thought: Bring Buell into the 21st century. When a Harley is more advanced than any Buell bike, something is wrong.

What's wrong with buell exactly?

CNF2002 wrote:What's wrong with buell exactly?

Buell has been reducing the amount of motorcycles in their lineup and I don't see a lot of them on the roads yet... But, this might be they are deep in R&D developing new models and are spending their money in this area rather than upgrade their older bikes.

Mike

Possibly. Mike I really wouldn't be surprised if we didn't see the end of buell as a marketable bike in the near future, what with the poor support the owners get from harley davidson. It's not bad support mind you, the dealer I go to is friendly and helpful, but even in a huge city of millions of people and 10 harley dealerships, only 1 will touch my bike. That tells me that harley davidson doesnt have much interest in retaining customers.

I was referring though to the 21st century comment. Aside from making it more efficient or reliable, any upgrades or "modernization" is going to add one thing: cost, and I don't really know if anything they could add to the bikes would be worth spending more money on.

Simple, easy to maintain, efficient, inexepensive and reliable bikes are a good market that I think the buell (at least the blast) fits into nicely.