Harley Sales Strong in First Quarter

By Bud Wilkinson of RIDE-CT.com

Harley-Davidson had a strong first quarter of 2012. The company released statistics on Wednesday, which showed that profits were up 44 percent. Net income rose to $172 million, or 74 cents per share, up from 119.3 million or 51 cents in 2011. Total revenue was $1.43 billion. Harley sold 39,762 new bikes in the U.S. from January through March. That’s a 25.5 percent increase from the first quarter of 2011. Worldwide retail sales rose 20.3 percent to 59,677 bikes. The company now expects to ship as many as 250,000 motorcycles to dealers this year.