Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson Inc. expects to ship more motorcycles to dealers and distributors this year after reporting strong quarterly earnings and sales figures, according to a regulatory filing.
The company, with a large operation in York County, now anticipates shipping 245,000 to 250,000 motorcycles worldwide in 2012 compared with prior shipment guidance of 240,000 to 245,000, the company said.
The increase reflects consumer demand and "limited ability to produce additional motorcycles in 2012," according to the filing.
Harley said earlier this week in a separate regulatory filing — after the information leaked out — that first-quarter U.S, retail sales of new motorcycles by independent dealers were up 25.5 percent from the year-ago period.
Dealer sales in international markets increased 11.2 percent compared with the same quarter in 2011, Harley said today.
Net income for the first quarter rose to about $172 million, or 74 cents per diluted share, compared with about $119.3 million, or 51 cents per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter, according to this morning's filing.
Analysts had expected earnings of about 72 cents per share, according to Yahoo Finance.
The company assembles its Softail, Touring and Trike motorcycles in a consolidated factory in Springettsbury Township.
Shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker symbol HOG.
