Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) Short Interest Update

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (NYSE:HOG) saw a large growth in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 7,480,000 shares, a growth of 9.2% from the March 15th total of 6,850,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,640,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.6 days. Currently, 5.5% of the shares of the company are sold short.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. BMO Capital Markets lifted their price target on shares of Harley-Davidson from $45.00 to $50.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 3rd. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of Harley-Davidson from $50.00 to $55.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 14th. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of Harley-Davidson from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 27th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of Harley-Davidson from $29.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, February 16th. Finally, DA Davidson lifted their price objective on shares of Harley-Davidson from $42.00 to $49.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, April 11th. Four research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Harley-Davidson has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $46.67.

Harley-Davidson Price Performance

Shares of HOG traded down $0.29 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $38.81. 1,775,808 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,556,566. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $39.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.62. The company has a market cap of $5.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.05, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.53, a quick ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.53. Harley-Davidson has a 1 year low of $25.43 and a 1 year high of $44.16.

Harley-Davidson (NYSE:HOG) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 8th. The company reported $0.18 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.04 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $791.65 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $875.29 million. Harley-Davidson had a net margin of 12.11% and a return on equity of 22.00%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.28 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that Harley-Davidson will post 4.22 earnings per share for the current year.

Harley-Davidson Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, March 20th. Stockholders of record on Monday, March 4th were given a dividend of $0.1725 per share. This is a positive change from Harley-Davidson’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.17. This represents a $0.69 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 1st. Harley-Davidson’s payout ratio is 14.32%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HOG. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of Harley-Davidson during the 4th quarter worth $51,860,000. Balyasny Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Harley-Davidson during the 3rd quarter worth $26,684,000. Morgan Stanley lifted its holdings in shares of Harley-Davidson by 37.8% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 2,598,104 shares of the company’s stock worth $85,893,000 after acquiring an additional 712,918 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Harley-Davidson by 15.1% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,241,888 shares of the company’s stock worth $193,115,000 after acquiring an additional 689,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Boston Partners lifted its holdings in shares of Harley-Davidson by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 7,206,167 shares of the company’s stock worth $265,398,000 after acquiring an additional 659,654 shares during the last quarter. 85.10% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About Harley-Davidson

Harley-Davidson, Inc manufactures and sells motorcycles in the United States and internationally. The company operates in three segments: Harley-Davidson Motor Company, LiveWire, and Harley-Davidson Financial Services. The Harley-Davidson Motor Company segment designs, manufactures, and sells motorcycles, including cruiser, trike, touring, standard, sportbike, adventure, and dual sport, as well as motorcycle parts, accessories, and apparel, as well as licenses its trademarks and related services.