The Harley-Davidson Board of Directors has approved a cash dividend of $0.1575 per share for the first quarter of 2022. The dividend is payable March 18, 2022 to the shareholders of record of the company's common stock as of February 28, 2022.
The MIC reports that new motorcycle and scooter sales among the leading brands included in its data capture were up for the full year 2021, with sales of all on-road motorcycles (including scooters, on-highway and dual) up by +14.2%. This is a second consecutive of growth, with sales now +21.8% across all categories (scooters, on-highway, dual and off-highway) since 2019. Scooter sales are up 19.6% over 2020 and 31.4% over 2019. On-highway motorcycle sales are up 12.9% over 2020. Dual sport models were up 18.6% over what was considered a monster year of sales in 2020, which saw a 46.2% increase in sales over 2019. Interest in off-highway motorcycles continues to be strong with a two-year increase of 42.9%.
Harley-Davidson's share price jumped on release of its 2021 Q4 and full year 2021 fiscals as the company reported a return to (albeit modest) profit, after a disastrous final quarter of 2020 saw it dip into the red. Having closed at around $36 the night before the February 8th release of its 2021 results, Harley's share price popped by around +15% to close just under $42.
Owned by Michael Veracka's MOD Enterprises eight store strong Harley dealer group, Riverside Harley-Davidson has been named the top selling new unit Harley dealership in the U.S. for 2021 and for the third year in a row - selling more than 2,000 new Harleys in the year. The group additionally includes Avalance, Jat City, Heritage, Rawhide, Desert Wind, Huntington Beach and Volcano Harley-Davidson.
According to the Guardian newspaper in the UK, disgraced Norton Motorcycles owner Stuart Garner could be facing up to two years in jail over breaches of pensions rules. He admitted three offences of illegally investing millions of pounds of pension savings into his business at Derby magistrates court in early February 2020. Garner acquired the classic marque in 2008 and was feted by a series of UK government ministers and publicly financed business assistance and promotion organizations before the company slumped into administration in January 2020, leaving pension fund holders owed about £14m. In June 2020, Garner was ordered to pay the money back after the pensions regulator in the UK had ruled that he acted "dishonestly." It is understood the pension holders are still waiting for any of their funds to be returned. Garner will be sentenced at the end of February.
The California Air Resources Board (CARB) has reached a settlement agreement with North Las Vegas based Dynojet Research (and its Dynatek ignitions subsidiary) for $2.1m for violations of CARB's air quality regulations. This is the second enforcement action against Dynojet. In 2007, CARB settled with the company for $1m for selling non-exempt aftermarket vehicle parts in California that violated the state's air quality regulations. CARB says the latest violations were discovered in part due to CARB's relationship with the U.S. EPA. The infractions are said to have revolved around Dynojet's Power Commander. "While Dynojet received approval for exemptions of several add-on or modified parts from its product lines, the company also offered products such as the Power Commander and Dynatek ignition system that have not received exemptions from CARB and failed to meet California's regulations."
Having won the Dakar Rally with KTM in 2017, January saw Briton Sam Sunderland score his second career Dakar Rally win, delivering a first ever win for GasGas and the 19th win for the KTM, Husqvarna, GasGas brand family. The win was secured riding what essentially was a rebadged KTM 450 Rally - the bike he won the 2017 rally on.
Sources: AMD, IDN, FT, Reuters, PSB, MPN, BDN, MCN, AP, Bloomberg, MSNW, Electrek, electricmotorcycles.news, RideApart.com, Motor1.com, Cycle World, motorbikewriter.com