Earnings call transcript: Harley-Davidson sees 19% revenue drop in Q2 2025

Harley-Davidson reported a challenging second quarter in 2025, with a 19% decline in consolidated revenue, while earnings per share stood at $0.88. The company faced headwinds in global motorcycle retail sales, which fell 15%. Despite these challenges, Harley-Davidson’s stock saw a notable increase of 14.69%, closing at $3.96, driven by strategic initiatives and market optimism. According to InvestingPro data, the company maintains a healthy current ratio of 2.85, indicating strong short-term liquidity despite operational challenges.

Key Takeaways

• Consolidated revenue fell by 19% in Q2 2025.
• EPS reached $0.88 despite a decline in global motorcycle sales.
• Stock price surged 14.69% post-earnings announcement.
• New product launches and strategic partnerships announced.
• Positive retail sales expected in the second half of 2025.

Company Performance

Harley-Davidson’s performance in Q2 2025 highlighted significant challenges, with a 19% drop in consolidated revenue and a 15% decline in global motorcycle retail sales. North America saw a 17% decrease, while international sales were down 12%. Despite these figures, the company maintained a 53% market share in the Cruiser segment, showcasing resilience amidst market difficulties.

Financial Highlights

• Revenue: $5.87 million, down 19% YoY.
• Earnings per share: $0.88.
• Motorcycle shipments: 36,000 units, down 28%.
• Gross margin: 28.6%, a decrease from 32.1% the previous year.
• Operating cash flow: $59 million, down $68 million YoY.

Earnings vs. Forecast

While the earnings per share of $0.88 was a positive point, the revenue figures reflected a challenging quarter. The decline in revenue and shipments was significant, marking a departure from previous periods where the company had shown more stability. InvestingPro analysis reveals concerning trends, with revenue declining by 30.76% in the last twelve months. Subscribers can access 14 additional ProTips about Harley-Davidson’s financial health and market position.

Market Reaction

Harley-Davidson’s stock experienced a 14.69% increase, closing at $3.96. This surge occurred despite the revenue decline, likely fueled by investor confidence in the company’s strategic initiatives and future growth potential. The stock’s performance is notable against its 52-week range of $0.93 to $9.039, indicating a recovery from recent lows. InvestingPro data shows the stock has a beta of 1.72, suggesting higher volatility than the broader market. Based on InvestingPro’s Fair Value analysis, the stock appears fairly valued at current levels.

Outlook & Guidance

Looking forward, Harley-Davidson anticipates positive retail sales in the latter half of 2025. The company plans to generate $525-$550 million in operating income from HDFS and is preparing for $500 million in share buybacks. Additionally, a $300 million investment in growth opportunities is on the horizon, including new product launches and strategic partnerships. For deeper insights into Harley-Davidson’s growth prospects and valuation metrics, investors can access the comprehensive Pro Research Report, available exclusively on InvestingPro, covering this and 1,400+ other top stocks.

Executive Commentary

CEO Jochen Zeitz expressed optimism about the new small displacement motorcycle, stating, "We believe this motorcycle will not only be highly accessible, but also profitable." CFO Jonathan Root highlighted the value of HDFS, noting, "We are excited to unlock significant value of HDFS for our shareholders."

Risks and Challenges

• High interest rates continue to challenge the motorcycle market.
• Declining global motorcycle sales could impact future revenue.
• Tariff challenges pose ongoing risks to international operations.
• Supply chain disruptions may affect production and delivery.
• Competitor advancements in electric vehicles could pressure market share.

Q&A

During the earnings call, analysts focused on the profitability of new product lines and the impact of global tariffs. Questions also centered on the company’s strategic initiatives to mitigate declining sales and enhance shareholder value. Harley-Davidson’s leadership emphasized ongoing efforts to innovate and adapt to market conditions.

Full transcript - LiveWire Group Inc (LVWR) Q2 2025:

Conference Operator: Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Harley Davidson twenty twenty five Second Quarter Investor and Analyst Conference Call. Please be advised that today’s conference is being recorded. I would now like to hand the conference over to Sean Collins. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Thank you. Good morning. This is Sean Collins, the Director of Investor Relations at Harley Davidson. You can access the slides supporting today’s call on the Internet at the Harley Davidson Investor Relations website. As you might expect, our comments will include forward looking statements that are subject to risks that could cause actual results to be materially different.

Those risks include, among others, matters we have noted in today’s earnings release and in our latest filings with the SEC. Joining me for this morning’s call are Harley Davidson Chief Executive Officer, Jochen Zeitz also Chief Financial Officer, Jonathan Root and we have LiveWire’s Chief Executive Officer, Karim Dines. With that, let me turn it over to our CEO, Jochen Zeitz. Jochen?

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: Thank you, Sean. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining today’s call. This morning, we are going to start with details on our HDFS transaction that we announced earlier today before moving on to the Q2 results. We’re very pleased to share that we’ve entered into strategic partnerships with both KKR and PIMCO for HDFS after completing a rigorous selection process with over a dozen parties bidding for the HDFS business over three rounds. We’ve consistently spoken about the strategic and financial value of the HDFS business and we are very excited to announce this transaction that clearly reinforces our view.

On our first quarter call, we laid out four key objectives that any transaction involving would need to achieve. And I’m pleased to say that we are checking the box on all of them, providing the business with a lot of flexibility in the future. First, we said it would have to reflect the significant value HDFS represents to Harley Davidson and its shareholders. The investment in HDFS equity at approximately 1.75 times post transaction book valuation for these two world class investors clearly achieves that goal illustrating HDFS’ class leading returns and corresponding significantly higher valuation to book value. Second, the transaction would have to create value over the long term with a strategic partner.

We expect this transaction will accomplish that across a range of fronts. Our new strategic partners will purchase about two thirds of HDFS future retail loan originations at a premium on an annual basis for five years. Going forward, HDFS will retain one third of new consumer loans and when combined with new fee streams, we expect it will significantly increase HDFS’ go forward ROE to the high 20s. And with the minority equity ownership of HDFS, KKR and PIMCO are in it for the long term. Third, a transaction would have to allow us to maintain or lower our overall cost of funding.

With this transaction, we are reducing our overall leverage and the perceived risk highlighted every time the business environment deteriorates, freeing up significant equity on the balance sheet and creating a long term stable funding mechanism, all of which we believe will contribute to greater funding flexibility and lower borrowing costs. We expect this transaction to boost HDFS earnings substantially this year by $275,000,000 to €300,000,000 operating income. On top of the strong HDFS operating result expected this year, we believe there’s a clear path to growing HDFS operating income quickly toward pre transaction levels in an asset light manner in future years. We plan to achieve this through the retention of only approximately one third of annual consumer originations as well as through new fee streams from loan originations and servicing fees and organic growth along with the commercial finance, insurance, car products and international partnerships that we retain. Lastly, but importantly, we were clear that the transaction could not have a negative impact on our customers or dealers.

For customers, this transaction will be transparent with HDFS continuing to originate and service both new and existing retail loans. And for our dealers, HDFS will be able to continue providing dealers with service, benefits and flexibility commensurate with what HDFS currently provides. Most importantly, this transaction will free up cash and allow additional flexibility to support demand driving initiatives. Overall, we believe the new partnership is a big win on all levels. In addition to other significant future benefits, this transaction is expected to generate cash that will allow HDFS to pay a distribution of approximately $1,250,000,000 to HDI and leave HDFS well positioned to continue to serve our customers and dealers in the best possible ways.

With the cash generated from this transaction, we are planning to reduce our debt by about $450,000,000 and to accelerate our $1,000,000,000 share buyback program announced last year with the intention to purchase $500,000,000 in the 2025. Also, we expect this will give us the flexibility to invest up to $300,000,000 of additional funds into future growth opportunities. The post transaction book value multiple realized in this transaction is a significant valuation for HDFS and we believe will serve as a major value unlock over time as it clearly highlights the substantial undervaluation of HTMC relative to other comparable companies. To summarize, the post transaction HDFS business’ equity has been valued by our partners at around $500,000,000 or approximately 1.75 times post transaction book value. As a result of this transaction, HDFS intends to distribute $1,250,000,000 of cash to HDI, representing around 40% of our current market cap.

The combined $1,750,000,000 of HDFS driven value compares to Harley Davidson current market cap of approximately $3,000,000,000 In addition, HDI was holding 1,600,000,000 of cash and equivalents at the end of Q2. This transaction implies that HDMS is trading at around 8x consensus operating income compared to peers at around 14x. Turning to HDMC and Q2. In the face of a continuously challenging commercial environment for discretionary products in particular, consolidated revenue for the second quarter declined 19% driven primarily by a planned reduction in motorcycle shipments and soft demand. Global motorcycle retail sales were down 15% year over year, reflecting the continued impact of elevated interest rates on customer purchasing behavior, broader demand softness and overall economic uncertainty.

In response to the ongoing uncertainty and persistently higher than expected interest rates, the company will look to introduce a new efficiency program and enhance and where possible accelerate its existing productivity initiatives. Any efforts will leverage technology including AI, which we expect will deliver substantial cost savings and drive further productivity gains across the business. Across our portfolio, performance was mixed depending on the segment. Touring continued to face headwinds as we lapped strong model year 2024 launch of the redesigned Touring platform. That said, through the quarter, we remained disciplined in motor company led promotions even as competitors leaned heavily on promotional activity, an area where we have exercised greater restraint, including on our 25 models.

The newly refreshed Softail lineup is performing better in the market. Additionally, our Rev Max platform, including both Adventure Touring and Sportster models, grew 16% year over year in North America. This growth was driven by several factors including the strategic repricing of NiGHTS to below $10,000 and increasing consumer appreciation for the platform. Overall, in The U. S, while market share for touring declined, we saw an increase in our overall cruiser business as well as a modest increase in our adventure touring offering in a challenging overall market.

As promised during the quarter, we continued to reduce dealer inventory with global levels down 28% compared to Q2 twenty twenty four. This aligns with our ongoing commitment to right size inventory and better match demand. The fluid global tariff environment and negative consumer sentiment remains a challenge for the business. However, our ongoing engagement with various governments gives us cautious optimism that future trade agreements may help limit the overall impact on our operations. The EU agreement announced this past weekend looks to be positive step forward.

In the meantime, our teams are working diligently to manage the near term effects on ’25, while also implementing longer term mitigation strategies to minimize potential impacts on the business. Additionally, following productive engagement with the U. S. Administration, we are pleased that Harley Davidson motorcycles have been included in the recently signed automotive tax deduction legislation, part of the broader economic bill. Under the new law, interest paid on loans for new U.

S.-built motorcycle purchases up to $10,000 annually is tax deductible when all vehicle and customer eligibility criteria are met. We believe this will have a positive effect and stimulate demand as the tax incentive takes hold in the market. Turning to racing. Since 2021, we’ve leaned into our racing heritage both through product development and the revival of Harley Davidson factory racing, competing at the highest level in both the King of the Baggers and Hooligan series, where we are proud to be leading both this year. Drawing inspiration from the track to the street, in March, we introduced our first limited production race replica inspired by our King of the Baggers race bikes, the CVO Road Glide RR.

This model blends elite performance with the signature craftsmanship of Harley Davidson CVO lineup. As expected, the 131 motorcycles priced at $110,000 generated an oversubscribed waitlist and preorders underscoring the growing excitement around our racing inspired offerings, including P and A and racing experiences, highlighting new opportunities in the future. We remain energized by the power of racing to ignite passion and are committed to leveraging it as a strategic catalyst for brand and product innovation. In that spirit, this May we announced the landmark partnership with MotoGP, the leading global motorcycle racing championship in the world to launch a new racing series in 2026, featuring Harley Davidson Pega motorcycles. The 12 race championship will span six Grand Prix across Europe and North America with each round showcasing two races on race prepared Harley Davidson road type motorcycles.

The grid will feature six to eight teams each fielding two riders and will be supported by Harley Davidson factory racing. I’m pleased to say that we’re in advanced stages of signing various teams following a very strong interest from many race teams. With this new series, we will be bringing a bold high performance expression of the Harley Davidson brand to the global stage, celebrating our historic racing legacy while redefining its future. It promised to be a thrilling addition to the world’s premier motorcycle racing landscape. Stay tuned for more.

Our race team’s home will soon be located at Juneau Avenue, where we’re making substantial investments into our historic headquarters to ensure the site is workforce ready by year end, complementing our already remodeled HDU building and newly built Harley Davidson Park. As mentioned in our previous earnings call, we are planning to introduce new entry level products in smaller displacements as well as an iconic classic starting next year. Today, I’m pleased to confirm the launch of our first small displacement motorcycle for The U. S. And international markets, which has been in development since 2021.

Inspired by our heritage and the spirit of the iconic Harley Davidson Sprint motorcycle, this new bike embodies boldness, irreverence and fun, capturing the rebellious energy that defines the Harley Davidson experience. Scheduled for release in the 2026 and for presentation to our global dealer network in October, I’m pleased to share that we’re targeting an entry price below $6,000 We believe this motorcycle will not only be highly accessible, but also profitable, marking a significant step forward in driving Harley Davidson’s future profitable growth and opening up a new path in motorcycle segment for the company in future years for its key markets. The new Harley Davidson Sprint motorcycle will be complemented by an additional and for the first time an expected profitable iconic enterprise point motorcycle in our traditional cruiser segment planned to follow soon after. All of this will be in addition to other new and exciting products we will be launching next year. Lastly, a few words about LiveWire.

The company remains committed to significantly reducing cash burn and operating losses and the LiveWire team has worked diligently to manage operating expenses across the business. In Q2, LiveWire delivered a 34% improvement in consolidated operating loss compared to Q2 twenty twenty four and reduced its use of cash and cash equivalents for the six months ended June 30 by 36% compared to the same period in 2024. We’re encouraged by the progress made and there is more to come. LiveWire continues to focus on its strategic pivot, maintaining market presence amid ongoing industry challenges while staying at the forefront of innovation, adding new high volume segments. Today, we can confirm that LiFi intends to launch production versions of its two latest concept models that were showcased at Harley Davidson Homecoming earlier this month.

These new mini motors represent a strategic refocus in LiFi’s product portfolio, aligning with evolving customer expectations, broader adoption trends given the significantly changed consumer and incentive environment since we launched the brand and fast growing global demand for lightweight, off road and urban friendly mobility solutions. These products mark an early step into new segments with more developments expected in the coming months. LiveWire has seen a tremendous response to these spikes over the past few weeks and we look forward to formally launching the Medike Mine in November. And with that, Jonathan, over to you.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Thank you, Jochen, and good morning to all. While Jochen touched on many of the benefits of our new strategic partnership with KKR and PIMCO, I wanted to provide a transactional review before I go into the Q2 results at Harley Davidson. Harley Davidson has agreed to sell a common equity interest in HDFS at approximately 1.75 times book value with each partner acquiring a 4.9% stake. As part of this transaction, HDFS has agreed to sell over $5,000,000,000 of existing gross consumer retail loan receivables and residual interest in securitized consumer loan receivables at a premium to par value. As a result, we will have a benefit from the release of loan loss reserve and sale of consumer loan receivables at a premium to par value.

We expect this to contribute $275,000,000 to $300,000,000 incremental to HDFS operating income in fiscal year twenty twenty five. This will allow us to execute on our expectations to reduce approximately $4,000,000,000 of HDFS debt associated with consumer retail loan receivables. In addition, going forward on an annual basis, we expect the strategic partners to purchase around two thirds of HDFS future retail loan originations annually for five years, also at a premium par value. Partners will pay a fixed servicing fee of 12.5% for prime and subprime receivables purchased from HDFS, respectively. Of note in this transaction, we are not selling any wholesale receivables.

There is no direct impact on commercial lending, card products, insurance and protection products or international beyond the equity stake mentioned. And Harley Davidson retains a controlling interest in HDFS with over 90% ownership. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of this year. In summary, we are excited to unlock significant value of HDFS for our shareholders through the sale of a minority stake while transforming HDFS into a capital light financing business. In addition, following 2026, it is creating a path that we believe will grow HDFS operating income in the future through new loan origination fees and loan servicing fees.

Naturally, we welcome that with the transaction, we will generate $1,250,000,000 of discretionary cash for Harley Davidson to use while we retain full control and majority ownership of HDFS. Now I will turn to the Q2 results at Harley Davidson. I plan to start on Page seven of the presentation, where I will briefly summarize the consolidated financial results for the 2025. And subsequently, I will go into further detail on each business segment. Consolidated revenue in the second quarter was down 19%, largely in line with our expectations across HDMC and HDFS, while revenue also decreased at LiveWire.

Consolidated operating income in the second quarter was $112,000,000 driven by a decline of 69% at HDMC. Operating income at HDFS came in at down 2% relative to prior year. At the LiveWire segment, the operating loss came in at $19,000,000 Consolidated operating income margin in the second quarter came in at 8.6% relative to 14.9% in the second quarter a year ago, representing a six twenty nine basis point decline, primarily due to the impacts associated with lower volume as we deliver on our commitment to help bring down dealer inventory. I plan to go into further detail on each business segment’s profit and loss drivers in the next section. Second quarter earnings per share was $0.88 As said previously, in Q2, global retail was down 15% with the North American market being down 17% and international markets down 12%.

Broadly speaking, customers are continuing to seemingly take a pause or wait and see approach to some extent based on higher interest rates and overall macro uncertainty, both factors having a meaningful impact on our specific customer profile buying patterns. In North America, the market continued to experience lower customer traffic coming into Harley Davidson dealerships. We also experienced this in the first quarter even though traffic trends improved in Q2. Our conversion rates actually remain fairly solid relative to recent history. Starting in April, as greater global tariff uncertainty was introduced, it added to the overall economic uncertainty that we experienced in Q1 and it stayed with us through most of Q2.

North America performance for Q2 saw a year over year decline that was an improvement from the decline experienced in Q1. As we get through July, we are seeing some signs of improvement in customer traffic in dealerships in North America based on some of our most recent go to market initiatives, such as new marketing initiatives, targeted promotional activity, a renewed approach to strategic price changes in each family, and amplified and more creative rider testing initiatives. We are also seeing our new marketing development fund truly being embraced by our North American dealers with impacts now showing up in market. In EMEA, retail was down 5% and experienced overall volatility due to the global tariff situation. Softail motorcycle retail was positive in Q2, up 4% as the redesigned model year ’25 Softails hit the market.

From a country perspective, we witnessed growth in the German region and the Benelux And Nordic region. These were offset by declines in France and The UK. In Asia Pacific, retail continued to be soft and was down 21%. This was due to intense competition in the lightweight and smaller motorcycle segments. From a product perspective, our refreshed Softail model year ’25 lineup performed fine as it hit the market in Q2, but we are optimistic for a stronger performance in the second half of the year.

From a country perspective, the sharpest declines were in Japan and in China due to continued economic uncertainty. In Q2, in the total Cruiser category, we experienced plus 6% volume growth in The U. S. And gained three points of share in the total Cruiser segment, growing to 53% market share in 2025 from 50% market share in 2024. Moving on to dealer inventory.

We believe current dealer inventory and product availability are in an improving and healthier position overall as we are now in the midst of the 2025 riding season. Global dealer motorcycle inventories were down 28% at the end of Q2 compared to the ’24. We are committed to supporting a significant year over year dealer inventory reduction by year end. We are well on our way to this, as already demonstrated in the first quarter and again in the second quarter, which marks our third consecutive quarter of decreasing dealer inventory on an equivalent year over year basis. Looking at revenue, HDMC revenue decreased by 23% in Q2.

Focusing on the key drivers for the quarter, 23 points of decline came from decreased wholesale volume at HTMC where motorcycle shipments in the quarter were down 28% coming in at 36,000 units compared to 50,000 units in the year ago period. This level balances our need to be prepared for the ongoing riding season and balance against any changes in the demand environment given the recent macro headlines and uncertainty. One point of growth came from favorable year over year pricing net of sales incentives for 2025 model year product. One point of decline came from mix as we balanced out the delivery of motorcycle models and markets. And finally, foreign exchange impacts resulted in one point of growth to Q2 revenue relative to prior year.

In Q2, HDMC gross margin was 28.6%, which compares to 32.1% in the prior year. The decrease of three fifty basis points was driven by the revenue factors I just spoke about and lower operating leverage, which includes modest cost inflation of less than 1%. In order to deliver on our commitment to help bring down dealer inventory, production volumes were down commensurate with the lower wholesale shipments in 2025. The lower production volumes resulted in a higher fixed cost per unit on motorcycles shipped in 2025. The unfavorable impact of lower operating leverage was modestly offset by other productivity savings related primarily to supply management during the quarter.

In addition, the cost of new or increased tariffs implemented in 2025 resulted in $13,000,000 of incremental costs in the Q2 period, creating a headwind of 125 basis points to the Q2 twenty twenty five operating income margin. Operating expenses in Q2 came in $2,000,000 higher than prior year at $237,000,000 which resulted in a HDMC operating margin of 5.9%, which compares to 14.7% in the prior year period. This higher OpEx was primarily driven by the planned spend for the marketing development fund I spoke of earlier and was partially offset by lower people costs, which we achieved through robust cost discipline. Turning to Slide 12. In the year to date period, HTMC gross margin was 28.9%, which compares to 31.7% in the prior year.

The decrease of two eighty basis points was driven by lower volumes and lower operating leverage, partially offset by the positive impacts of pricing, mix and foreign currency. The year to date results include modest cost inflation of less than 1%. In addition, the cost of new or increased tariffs implemented in 2025 resulted in $17,000,000 of incremental costs in the year to date period, creating a headwind of 80 basis points to the year to date operating income margin. This excludes costs of $7,000,000 to mitigate tariff impacts. Operating expenses in the year to date period came in twenty one million dollars lower than prior year at $436,000,000 which resulted in a HDMC operating margin of 8.4%, which compares to 15.4% in the prior year period.

Before we turn to the next slide, I would like to update on our ongoing productivity cost program, where we were expecting to drive a $400,000,000 improvement in productivity by 2025. As a reminder, for the cumulative three year period of 2022 through 2024, we have achieved unlevered productivity savings of $257,000,000 We continue to expect to achieve another $100,000,000 for all of 2025 and again in 2026, exceeding our hard lawyer dollar target by over 10%, as mentioned in February. In the 2025, we achieved 48,000,000 of unlevered productivity, split evenly by quarter, primarily from logistics and supply chain initiatives. Turning to Slide 13. The global tariff environment remains uncertain, but we wanted to provide an update.

In the 2025, the cost of new or increased tariffs was $17,000,000 This includes direct tariff exposure, Harley Davidson importing and exporting product, as well as indirect tariff exposure from our suppliers. This excludes pricing mitigation actions as well as any expenses to accelerate product deliveries ahead of tariffs. We do expect that the direct tariff costs will increase in the second half of the year, but the environment remains volatile. Harley Davidson is a business very centered in and around The U. S.

Three of four manufacturing plants are U. S.-based, including spinal assembly in York, Pennsylvania and powertrain operations and injection molding with class leading paint application each in Wisconsin. We also have a U. S.-centric approach to sourcing with approximately 75% of component purchasing coming from The U. S.

And all of our core products sold in The U. S. Are proudly assembled in The U. S. With that in mind, we estimate our full year 2025 impact from the direct cost of new or increased tariffs to be in the range of $50,000,000 to $85,000,000 This has been reduced from $130,000,000 to $175,000,000 at Q1 release on May 1.

We have a number of actions underway to mitigate the impact, and we expect this situation will remain fluid given the uncertainty that still exists. Turning back to HDFS and its performance. At Harley Davidson Financial Services, Q2 revenue came in at $257,000,000 a decrease of only 2% driven by modestly lower retail receivables and commercial receivables. HDFS operating income was $70,000,000 down less than $2,000,000 or 2% compared to last year. The small Q2 decrease was driven by lower net interest income and higher operating expenses, partially offset by lower provision for credit losses and higher other income.

The provision for credit loss expense was $6,000,000 lower as a result of a favorable reserve change, partially offset by higher credit losses. The reserve change was $7,000,000 favorable as compared to Q2 twenty twenty four, primarily driven by a smaller increase in retail receivables during Q2 twenty twenty five compared to 2024. In Q2, HDFS’ annualized retail credit loss ratio was 3.25%, which compares to 3.12% in the year ago period. Retail credit losses were $1,000,000 higher than a year ago. In addition to the small increase in credit losses, the June 2025 annualized retail credit loss ratio was further negatively impacted by a decline in retail receivables.

While delinquencies remained elevated as customers continue to be impacted by higher bike payments and general inflationary pressures, the retail credit losses moderated, thanks to improved repossession success rates and stabilizing recovery values at auction. There were no commercial finance credit losses during Q2 twenty twenty five. In addition, the retail allowance for credit losses for the second quarter remained flat at 5.7% from 2025. Total retail loan originations in Q2 were down 15%, while commercial financing activities were also down, decreasing 20% to $1,100,000,000 as a result of the significant reduction in motorcycle inventories at our Harley Davidson dealerships. Total quarter end net financing receivables, including both retail loans and commercial financing, was $7,300,000,000 which was down 9% versus prior year.

For the LiveWire segment, which is on Page 17, electric motorcycles revenue decreased in the 2025 compared to the prior year period, driven by lower unit sales of LiveWire electric motorcycles. Selling, administrative and engineering expenses were $8,000,000 lower compared to the prior year. LiveWire operating loss of $19,000,000 in 2025 was in line with expectations and compares to an operating loss of $28,000,000 in the prior Q2. We now expect LiveWire’s full year operating loss to come in between 59,000,000 and $69,000,000 On a unit basis, LiveWire reported sales of 55 compared to 158 units sold in the prior Q2. The uncertain macro environment and the lack of any incentive continued to weigh on the consumers’ discretionary appetite for bigger motorcycles in early stage EV products.

Wrapping up with consolidated Harley Davidson Q2 financial results, we delivered $5.00 $9,000,000 of operating cash flow, which was down $68,000,000 from the prior period. The decrease in operating cash flow was due to lower net income and due to working capital activity, partially offset by lower net cash outflows related to wholesale finance receivables in the first six months of twenty twenty five as compared to the same period last year. Total cash and cash equivalents ended at $1,600,000,000 which was $261,000,000 lower than at the end of Q2 prior year. This consolidated cash number includes $29,000,000 at LiveWire. Additionally, as part of our capital allocation strategy, we remain committed to returning capital to shareholders.

Given the unexpected operating environment since early April due to the sudden and unpredictable changes in global tariff policy, we moved to the sidelines in Q2 and did not buy back any Harley Davidson shares during Q2. We did buy back 3,400,000.0 shares of our stock at a value of $87,000,000 in 2025. Given that the global tariff situation remains ongoing and uncertain, we continue to withhold our full year 2025 financial outlook for HDMC and HDI. Following today’s announcement, we expect HDFS should come in at approximately $525,000,000 to $550,000,000 of operating income for 2025. As we move into the 2025 and with the noted closing of the HDFS transaction, I will again summarize the intended uses of proceeds.

We plan to increase the pace of buybacks and are working hard to deliver on our $1,000,000,000 commitment in share repurchases we announced in July 2024. Our plan is to purchase 500,000,000 in shares during the second half of the year, as mentioned earlier. We also plan to reduce our debt by $450,000,000 and have a meaningful balance remaining to invest into the business. We expect this will give us the flexibility to invest up to $300,000,000 of additional funds into future growth opportunities. And with that, we will open it up to Q and A.

Conference Operator: Thank you. Our first question comes from Craig Kennison from Baird. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jonathan Root, Chief Financial Officer, Harley-Davidson: Hey, good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. One on the HDFS transaction. What are the components you are using to calculate that 1.75 times book value marker? I’m just not seeing it clearly in the numbers.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Sure. Hi, Craig. It’s Jonathan. Great question. So as we look at where the where the one seven five where the $1.07 5 lands, it’s actually the derivative of of the proceeds that come in from, KKR and PIMCO for their equity investment in the business.

And as you would flow through and you would take a look at kind of where the book value of the business would come in and then how the equity, is associated with that book value, it it it kinda lines up to, you know, one a one seventy five multiple. So we’ll have more disclosures in our k’s and q’s that are coming that will kinda help outline all of this, but it’s effectively the relationship between the premium that they pay versus the post transaction book value of HDFS.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Joe Altobello from Raymond James. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Thanks. Hey guys, good morning. So a couple of questions on HDFS. I guess first, the underlying profitability of that business looks like it got better than you guys originally anticipated. What’s driving that?

And then transaction, I know you mentioned that you expect that business to grow and get back to its normal profitability over time. What is the normalized profitability for that business under this new arrangement in 2026, for example? Okay. Hi, Joe. So, just answering a couple of your questions.

So from an HDFS profit standpoint, as we think about ’20 your first question, around 2025, 2025, we have seen from an overall HDFS standpoint, we disclosed what you’re seeing going on relative to delinquency. We covered some of the drivers and the characteristics from a loss standpoint. So we’re pretty pleased in terms of, the, you know, stabilization and slight improvement in used values. So we use, you know, the the source that we find is the most consistent and most reliable in terms of used values is BlackBook data. So as we kinda go through and parse the BlackBook data and take a look at that, a comfort that we’re seeing a slight improvement in used values, that’s helping us as we think about what the overall HDFS business looks like.

We’re really pleased with what we’re seeing from our dealers in terms of dealers showing up at our auctions. So when we do have to repossess a unit, the dealer participation at auction for us is very helpful. That helps us from both a, value perspective. And then also, as we think about, kinda giving us another swing to have another contact point with those customers, when the used motorcycles get retailed through our Harley Davidson dealers, that helps us too. So we’ve seen, some really nice stabilization in terms of Harley Davidson dealer control of used.

We’ve seen some nice stabilization and slight up in used values. And then we’ve also been very pleased about repossession rates. The HDFS team is doing a wonderful job of really driving, the the repossession rate in a direction that’s favorable. So as we put all of those underlying factors together in terms of, kind of loss characteristics, we’re very pleased with the way that the business is performing on that front. And that’s been a trend that’s improved as we’ve moved through the months in the year.

So pretty pleased with the base level there. Sorry, go ahead Jochen.

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: Yes. Now just to add to what Jonathan said, it’s not just the stabilization of used values or slight improvement. It’s also that the used motorcycle business actually grew in Q2 compared to the new business and obviously HDFS finance is both used and new. So that’s an additional factor.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Okay. Thanks Jochen. And then one last point Joe on your question around kinda normalized earnings. If you take a look at what we’ve provided on page 24 of our earnings deck so we have a little longer earnings deck, this quarter to try to cover details of the transaction. But if you would walk through that, it starts to tell you kind of the time that that things take from a normalization standpoint.

And we think of normalized HDFS earnings, to answer your question directly, of a you know, of about $240,000,002 $50,000,000 a year in operating income.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Tristan Thomas Martin from BMO Capital Markets. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jonathan Root, Chief Financial Officer, Harley-Davidson: Hey, good morning. I know you mentioned that consumer traffic picked up in July, but is that translated to improved retail performance?

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: Yes Tristan, I can’t give you the final number for July yet, but we’ve seen a sequential significant improvement if you look at the North American figures. In fact, you look back all the way from February, retail trends for new motorcycle unit sales improved every month. And we expect that to continue in July as well, significant improvement expected. And then going forward for the rest of the year, we believe we can actually come positive given the measures that we’ve taken in the market and easier comps compared to last year and some of the measures we’ve taken Jonathan has already highlighted. So July another improvement in The U.

S. And we expect that to continue until the end of the year.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Alex Perry from Bank of America. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Karim Dines, Chief Executive Officer, LiveWire: Yes. Hi. Thanks for taking my questions here. Just a two parted question. Can you just talk through about how you feel about current dealer inventories and sort of what the target is for year end?

And then the the timing of the model launch shift, can you just talk about how you’re gonna sort of sequence that in? Are you planning to launch, you know, bikes this fall? Just wanted to get more color on how you’re thinking about new model launch timing. Thanks.

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: Yes. I’ll take the first question. In terms of dealer inventory, you’ve seen the commitment that we’ve made earlier in the year to significantly reduce dealer inventory and that has happened across the world including The U. S. With the marked decline that we had mentioned earlier today.

We as Jonathan mentioned earlier, we expect that to continue and expect a significant reduction. To what extent, it’s difficult to say right now. It of course also depends on retail sales, but definitely double digit decline should be target considering that last year last quarter of last year we already saw a decline of about 4% in our dealer inventory and that then accelerated in terms of decline in the first and second quarter. And so overall, we think that we are ending the year with very healthy levels of dealer inventory.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: And Alex, I’ll take the piece on model year shift. So from a model year shift perspective, we’re still working through some of the details with our with our dealer network in terms of exactly what it means and the timing. And, you know, truthfully, as we look at some of these things, there are differences between model year launch in The The United States or North America and the rest of the globe just as we think about where we have a preponderance of manufacturing. And so as we look at that carryover, kind of so think think sort of a refresh of of, our touring bikes, our soft tails, that all takes place, beginning this fall. And then we have the ability to kinda continue to drop some exciting intros throughout the year as you have seen us do, over the last, over the last couple of years.

I think a great example of that is is as we look at this year, our our GrayGhost Softail, for example, that product has sold very, very well. That is something that has generated a lot of buzz, a lot of enthusiasm, and a lot of excitement across the dealer body. So you’ll continue to see some special iterations and special vehicles drop throughout the year. So we will always be driving excitement and freshness into the dealer body. But we are excited to be able to pull the model year shift, you know, forward and back into the fall.

For us, that does a couple of things. It really helps us as we think think about throughput and how we get everything through our network into our dealers and prepared for the coming season. It also helps us extend the season a little bit by keeping some excitement, showing up, in our dealerships toward the end of the calendar year. And so, you know, full details we’re we’re working through with our with our dealer partners. But, you know, you will see that excitement, come back into the fall.

Thanks so much.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Stephen Grambling from Morgan Stanley. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Jonathan Root, Chief Financial Officer, Harley-Davidson: Hi. Thanks. This is a bit of a multi parter on the HDFS transaction. Why was the 4.9% equity sale the right level sold? Are there any tax ramifications to think through that are incorporated into that 1.25 in cash unlocked?

Or is that a gross number? And then also how is the exchange rate in the hog stock set that’s in the presentation? Thank you.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Okay. Thank you, Stephen. So I’ll start with the 4.9 question. So really good one. Why 4.9%?

As we go through and we take a look at the HDFS business, it is a it is a pretty complex, little business. We’re super proud of the way that that business runs and and what it generates across Harley Davidson. One of the elements that we have to factor in from an HDFS standpoint is, the fact that we have an industrial loan corporation, so EagleMark Savings Bank. ESB is is FDIC regulated. And so from an FDIC perspective, there are caps and covenants around, ownership, the percentage of it that we would own, and then, investment into the business.

So the 4.9% threshold is something that the FDIC has a comfort level with in terms of, any sort of any sort of additional owner. So we so we limited around the 4.9%, you know, to a high degree because of regulatory ease. And when we start moving beyond that, it’s not it’s not that it can’t be done. It’s just a little more complex in terms of the hoops that you have to jump through. So that’s really why the limit, you know, KKR with their 4.9%, ownership and then PIMCO with their 4.9% ownership.

That’s the rationale for the 4.9% limit. As we think about the one and a quarter, the one and a quarter that that flows up from a distribution from HDFS, to the parent company, that is a pretax figure. So, obviously, we will end up having to sort of flow through all of our normal tax planning and tax management on that front. I think in the latest quarter, you saw us probably, you know, low low twenties from a tax rate perspective that we’ve been running at on a year to date basis. And then as we think about, your last question around exchange exchange right, you know, I I think as as you as you flow through that piece, we probably need to have a follow-up conversation with you just to make sure that we understand the detailed nature of your query on that front.

I don’t I don’t quite know what what the question is, so I’ll struggle to answer that one.

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: And the business is primarily The U. S. Business that we’re talking about, so there shouldn’t be any significant exchange effects. So but we’ll get back to that, Stephen. And just to add to what Jonathan said, so the reasons you highlighted are I think important reasons why we’ve limited the sale at 4.9% from both perspectives, from the partners’ perspective and our perspective.

And as we mentioned earlier, we had more than a dozen bids that range from all the way from long term committed purchases of loan receivables, but also to an outright sale of the majority of the business. And we actually could have sold the majority or at significant premium to book value. But given the four key objectives that I had mentioned that any transaction involving HDFS would need to achieve that we set out already earlier in the year, we feel that this was the best possible outcome at least requiring least complexity and a big win really on all these levels.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from Robin Farley from UBS. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Craig Kennison, Analyst, Baird: Great. Thank you. I also wanted to ask about the HDFS transaction, kind of two part question, guess. One is, is the transaction assuming any kind of growth in retail sales of Harley or growth in receivables or any kind of guarantee at all along those lines that’s coming with the sale where the terms might change if certain sales are receivable or operating income thresholds aren’t hit? And then also just thinking about that, you know, what you’re giving up in exchange for the 1.25%.

Just looking, you know, historically financial services, I think last year was more than 40% of the total company earnings maybe would be more than 50% this year. Know there’s not guidance for the full year. But, so just trying to think about and can you help us quantify what earnings come out of your go forward number in exchange for, for those proceeds? Thanks.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Okay. Thank you, Robin. So let’s let’s start with the first part in terms of guarantees. So as you would imagine, both both KKR and PIMCO are pretty highly esteemed, pretty, you know, savvy investors. There are no guarantees around maintaining a certain growth rate, main maintaining certain loss levels.

So as we take a look at the way that that’s done, there aren’t there aren’t guarantees of any nature, sort of kind of an an answer to your question and the pieces that you hinted at. The great news is that as Jochen touches on, we had you know, as as we go through this process, we kinda began with a a pretty wide, range of parties that were interested in the business. We narrowed that down, to about a dozen or so as we got into more serious negotiations and then came down to the final two in terms of KKR and PIMCO. They have a super high degree of comfort in terms of the way that the business is run, the prudence with which the team underwrites the business, collects on everything. And I think it really is a testament to the leadership that we have at HDFS and the way that that business runs.

So there aren’t there aren’t any sort of guarantees in terms of performance where we have risk or exposure from from that standpoint. There’s a high degree of comfort that we will continue to run the business in the way that we have where it runs profitably kind of through cycles. And and, obviously, when we look at the strength of the partners and what it means from a liquidity standpoint and a comfort level, as to how we actually fund that business going forward, we are extremely happy to have, each of them, as engaged partners in the business. As we think about what we’re giving up, the main the main thing is that with what we have outlined, we end up with about a third of the annual originations on our balance sheet for the retail business rather than three thirds that we would have had previously in exchange for for the one third that goes to KKR and the one third that goes to PIMCO. They are obviously paying, as we have outlined, a premium to par on the origin on the retail loans that we originate, and then they also pay the servicing fees that we outlined, in the conversation.

And but you can see that there is a little bit of a curve to the earnings. So we have the tremendous benefit from an earnings standpoint that we’ve outlined for 2025. And then on page, again, let me check the exact page. But on page 24 of our earnings deck, we outline what happens from an overall capital perspective and then what happens from an earnings standpoint. So on the right of that page, you’ll see sort of a directional earnings curve.

We’ll get into more details later. And then on the left, you see the significantly reduced capital levels inside of the business as we move forward. That’s what drives the, the ROE benefit that Jochen spoke of.

Conference Operator: Our next question comes from James Hardiman from Citi. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Joe Altobello, Analyst, Raymond James: Hey, good morning. So just a quick clarification. Jochen, I think you said that you expected retail to be be positive in the second half. Just just maybe clarify that and and how do we get there? But my bigger picture question, the the small displacement bike.

Right? There was some discussion of that in the prepared remarks. Obviously, there’s a lot that you guys are are working through today. That seems like a really big deal, as we think about, you know, of of of of what’s been elusive to Harley historically. Right?

An entry level bike that’s both popular and profitable. And so if you’re successful with that, you know, that could really move the needle, but maybe speak a little bit more about how that’s possible. Right? That that profitability component in particular, how have you been able to accomplish that whereas, you know, previous generations of hardly management has not, and and what that profitability should look like going forward? Thanks.

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: Thanks, James. Yes, going forward, we expect retail sales certainly in North America to be positive for the given reasons that we had mentioned. That’s confirmed. And as we’ve seen the trends since February improve, it won’t take much to achieve that considering also the easier comps as of August. In terms of STV, I completely agree with you.

This is a big step for the company, not only with our STV, but also with the iconic cruiser that we are working on that we are going to launch thereafter and both for the first time in a manner that we believe that we can actually make money on both of them and the price point starting at €6,000 and then adding additional price points over future years that will allow us to play in the segment, which especially when you look at to this year, but even last year is the only area that really shows growth right now, which very much is a result of affordability issues that our core customers have that we need to take into consideration. This spike has been in development since 2021. It’s taking time, but we feel confident that it can achieve a profitable margin. And from there, obviously, we can build a profitable business in various segments that we have not or partly not competed in the cruise of a segment that we have competed in before. But as you know that has never been a profitable business for many decades.

We believe that how we’ve engineered this product, it will be profitable. So that’s a significant unlock, which is why we’ve mentioned it. We’ve mentioned it also in this call because we are going to present the small displacement vehicle to our dealers in early October. And as you are very well connected, we thought we’d give you a heads up already now rather than wait until October. But that’s I don’t want to go into specifics of how we feel we’ve accomplished that, but we have worked very hard over a long period of time and believe this is absolutely possible.

And we’ve learned a lot in the last five years in particular to be confident that we can achieve this finally for the company. So yes, agreed significant unlock for the business and especially in the current business environment. So if you at some point see the business returning in the big bike segment, which has been challenged over the last almost two years. And in addition, the new fuel that we will be put on the fire with these bikes over the next few years coupled with new product developments that will come out starting next year, this is I think all good news.

Conference Operator: Our question comes from Jamie Katz from Morningstar. Please go ahead. Your line is open.

Tristan Thomas Martin, Analyst, BMO Capital Markets: Hey, good morning. Just a clarification to start. The €300,000,000 that’s going into HDFS, should we dump that into 3Q or 4Q because it’s going to swing earnings pretty significantly whenever it goes in, I suppose. And the other thing you guys talked about that wasn’t mentioned was a new efficiency program. Is there any intel on the magnitude of that impact?

Are you in the early stages? And what might you be focusing on? Thanks.

Sean Collins, Director of Investor Relations, Harley-Davidson: Okay. Thank you, Jamie. So as we look at the $300,000,000, upside that you referenced from HDFS perspective, we will, likely end up closing the you know, I think we’ve announced we’re closing in the second half of the year, due to the sort of complexity of this as we as we settle different elements of the transaction, there will probably be some elements that close in q three and then also some elements that close in q four. So I think as we look at different tranches of the loans and some different buckets, it’s kind of broken into the those two quarters. We are going to make sure that we are, you know, clearly working with our partners KKR and Bimco on the settlement of each of those pieces.

So more to come on on that front. And Jochen, I’ll hand it over to you for an efficiency standpoint.

Jochen Zeitz, Chief Executive Officer, Harley-Davidson: Yes. Jonathan already talked about our $400,000,000 productivity gain commitment that we’ve made that we will be overachieving by about 10%. We have identified new opportunities to further those productivities and increase those productivity gains, but we also see significant opportunity in the new efficiency program, details of which will be outlined in future earnings calls. And we believe that Specialty Technology including AI will really help drive substantial cost savings for structure of the business going forward to drive further productivity gains across the entire business. Rest assured, the decisions that we are taking in this regard will be aligned closely aligned with the Board and then the incoming CEO, so there’s full alignment in the handover process and the transition process with regards to this efficiency program as well.

But we’re not going to go into detail, but we feel confident that there are a number of activities that we can start immediately and many more to follow by until the end of the year to really change the model quite significantly also with the help of AI.

Conference Operator: There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today’s conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.

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