LiveWire Group Stock price
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Key metrics
📘 Market Capitalization
📈 What is it?
Market capitalization shows how much a company is currently worth on the stock market.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps classify companies by size (Large, Mid, Small Cap) and indicates their market presence and relative stability.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Large-cap companies tend to be more stable, often pay dividends, but may grow more slowly.
- Smaller firms may offer higher growth potential but come with more volatility.
- Market capitalization is a useful indicator of company size — but not a measure of whether a stock is undervalued or overvalued.
📘 Enterprise Value (EV)
📈 What is it?
Enterprise Value represents the total cost to acquire a company — including its debt and excluding its cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
(= Market Cap + Net Debt)
🏛️ Why is it important?
EV gives a more complete picture of a company's value than market cap alone and is used in key valuation ratios like EV/FCF or EV/Sales.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Enterprise Value shows the true cost of buying a company, including all financial obligations.
- It is more accurate than just looking at market cap, especially when comparing companies with different levels of debt or cash.
- Professional investors prefer EV-based multiples because they better reflect the company’s full financial footprint.
📘 Net Debt
📈 What is it?
Net Debt shows how much debt remains after subtracting a company’s available cash reserves.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It indicates how dependent a company is on borrowed money and how easily it can service its debt in the short term.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low or negative net debt signals financial strength and flexibility.
- Companies with strong cash positions are better positioned in crises.
- High net debt increases financial risk — especially in environments with rising interest rates or economic downturns.
📘 Cash
📈 What is it?
Cash represents all liquid assets a company can access immediately — including cash, bank deposits, and short-term investments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It reflects a company’s financial flexibility and resilience — enabling investments, buybacks, or buffer in downturns.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A strong cash position means greater room for maneuver and crisis resistance.
- Cash-rich companies can invest, pay down debt, or repurchase shares.
- But excess idle cash might indicate a lack of growth opportunities.
📘 Shares Outstanding
📈 What is it?
Shares outstanding represent the total number of a company’s shares currently held by investors — excluding treasury stock.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s the basis for key metrics like Earnings Per Share (EPS), Market Capitalization, or the Price/Earnings ratio (P/E).
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Fewer shares in circulation typically increase earnings per share — making each share more valuable.
- Share buybacks reduce the number of shares and boost per-share metrics.
- Issuing new shares does the opposite — diluting shareholder value and lowering per-share figures.
📘 Price-to-Earnings Ratio (P/E)
📈 What is it?
The P/E ratio shows how many times a company's earnings per share are reflected in its current share price — in other words, how "expensive" the stock appears relative to its profits.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The P/E ratio is one of the most widely used valuation metrics. It helps investors assess whether a stock appears cheap or expensive compared to its earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
📊 P/E (TTM) = Based on earnings from the last 12 months (Trailing Twelve Months):🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/E may indicate undervaluation — or signal underlying issues.
- A high P/E may reflect strong growth expectations — or an overvalued stock.
📘 Price-to-Sales Ratio (P/S)
📈 What is it?
The P/S ratio shows how much investors are paying for $1 of the company’s revenue – regardless of profitability.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/S is especially useful for evaluating growth companies or businesses not yet profitable. It reflects how the market values the company’s sales.
🧮 Calculation
Market Cap = $289.63m | Revenue (TTM) = $31.29m
Market Cap = $289.63m | Estimated Revenue = $184.60m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low P/S may indicate undervaluation — or low profitability.
- A high P/S can reflect strong growth expectations — or excessive optimism.
- Especially helpful when evaluating companies where profits are low, volatile, or negative.
📘 Enterprise Value to Sales (EV/Sales)
📈 What is it?
EV/Sales shows how much investors are paying for $1 of revenue — considering not just equity, but also debt and cash. It’s the capital structure–adjusted version of the P/S ratio.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It’s ideal for comparing companies with different levels of debt. It reflects a company's true cost relative to its revenue.
🧮 Calculation
Enterprise Value = $313.58m | Revenue (TTM) = $31.29m
Enterprise Value = $313.58m | Forward Revenue = $184.60m
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EV/Sales allows for capital structure–neutral company comparisons.
- A lower ratio may indicate undervaluation; a higher one may signal strong growth expectations or overvaluation.
- Especially helpful when evaluating high-growth companies with low or negative earnings.
📘 Enterprise Value to Free Cash Flow (EV/FCF)
📈 What is it?
EV/FCF shows how many years it would take for a company to "pay back" its enterprise value using its free cash flow.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It focuses on real cash generation, ignoring accounting noise — ideal for assessing profitability and value based on liquidity, not earnings.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low EV/FCF may signal undervaluation and strong cash generation.
- A high EV/FCF might reflect weak recent cash flow or aggressive growth expectations.
- Best suited for stable, mature businesses with predictable free cash flows.
📘 Price-to-Book Ratio (P/B)
📈 What is it?
The P/B ratio compares a company’s market value to its book value — showing how much investors are paying for each dollar of net assets.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
P/B is commonly used for asset-heavy industries like banks or industrials. It helps assess whether a stock is trading above or below its net asset value.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A P/B below 1 may signal undervaluation — or weak profitability.
- A P/B above 1 implies the market expects future value creation (e.g., brand, IP, growth).
- Best used for companies with tangible assets and strong balance sheets.
📘 Equity Ratio
📈 What is it?
The equity ratio indicates what portion of a company’s total assets is financed by shareholders’ equity – in other words, how much it relies on its own capital.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
A high equity ratio reflects financial strength and stability, especially during downturns. It’s a key indicator of a company’s solvency and long-term risk profile.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Companies with high equity ratios are generally more resilient and less dependent on external debt.
- Low equity ratios can signal higher risk or aggressive financial strategies.
- Important: Always assess the equity ratio in combination with the return on equity (ROE). This shows not just how stable the company is – but also how efficiently it uses shareholder capital.
📘 Return on Equity (ROE)
📈 What is it?
Return on equity (ROE) shows how efficiently a company uses its shareholders’ equity to generate profit. In other words: how much net income is earned per dollar of equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROE is a core profitability metric. It helps investors understand whether a company delivers attractive returns on the capital provided by its shareholders.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROE indicates that the company is using its capital efficiently and profitably.
- It’s especially meaningful for capital-intensive businesses or firms with high equity bases.
- Important: A very high ROE can also result from high debt levels – always interpret it alongside the equity ratio to assess financial health.
📘 Return on Capital Employed (ROCE)
📈 What is it?
ROCE measures how efficiently a company generates profits from its total capital – including both equity and interest-bearing debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It evaluates the return on all capital employed, regardless of how it’s financed.
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROCE is ideal for comparing companies with different financing structures. It shows how well management uses capital to create value for both shareholders and creditors.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROCE means the company uses its capital efficiently – regardless of whether it's funded by debt or equity.
- The higher the ROCE compared to peers, the more value the company creates with its invested capital.
- Especially relevant for capital-intensive sectors like industrials, energy, or infrastructure.
📘 Return on Invested Capital (ROIC)
📈 What is it?
ROIC measures how efficiently a company generates returns from the capital invested in its core operations – regardless of whether the capital comes from equity or debt.
🧮 How is it calculated?
- NOPAT = Net Operating Profit After Taxes
- Invested Capital = Operating assets minus non-interest-bearing liabilities
🏛️ Why is it important?
ROIC is one of the most accurate indicators of capital efficiency. Unlike return on equity, it is not distorted by leverage and shows how much value is created for all capital providers.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high ROIC shows how effectively a company uses the capital that is truly invested in its core operations.
- Unlike ROCE, ROIC focuses only on the capital that is actively used to run the business – and that requires a return (i.e. interest-bearing).
- Especially useful when comparing companies with large amounts of excess cash or non-interest-bearing liabilities – giving a more realistic picture of capital efficiency.
📘 Leverage Ratio (Debt-to-Equity)
📈 What is it?
The leverage ratio indicates how much a company relies on interest-bearing debt (such as loans and bonds) relative to its shareholders’ equity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This ratio helps assess a company’s financial structure and risk profile. High leverage can enhance returns – but also increases exposure to interest rate changes and financial stress.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A low leverage ratio signals financial strength and independence.
- A higher ratio can improve returns in good times but increases risk during downturns or rising interest rate periods.
- 👉 Always interpret in the context of industry, capital intensity, and interest rate environment.
📘 Revenue
📈 What is it?
Revenue shows how much a company earns in total from selling its products and services – the gross income before any costs are deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Revenue is one of the key figures to assess a company’s size, market position, and growth potential.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing revenue indicates rising demand and can be an early signal of future earnings growth.
- Comparing actual and expected revenue reveals trends in the market environment and analyst sentiment.
- Note: Strong revenue alone isn’t enough – margins and profitability matter just as much.
📘 EBITDA
📈 What is it?
EBITDA stands for “Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization.” It reflects a company’s operating profit before the effects of financing, taxes, and accounting depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBITDA is widely used to evaluate a company’s operating performance – especially across capital-intensive sectors or international comparisons.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high or growing EBITDA indicates strong operational profitability – independent of taxes, interest, or accounting methods.
- It’s especially useful for comparing companies across sectors or geographies.
- Important: EBITDA is not a net income figure – it excludes key costs like depreciation and interest.
📘 EBIT
📈 What is it?
EBIT stands for “Earnings Before Interest and Taxes.” It reflects a company’s operating profit after depreciation, but before interest and tax expenses.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT is a core profitability metric that shows how well the company performs in its main business operations – independent of capital structure and tax environment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT indicates strong profitability from the company’s core business – before financial and tax effects.
- It allows better comparison between companies with different debt levels or tax structures.
- Compared to EBITDA, EBIT already accounts for depreciation and reflects capital intensity more clearly.
📘 Net Income
📈 What is it?
Net income is the company’s total profit – the amount left after all expenses, taxes, interest, and depreciation have been deducted.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the most comprehensive measure of a company’s profitability – showing how much actual profit remains after all business and financing costs.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growing net income indicates that the company is managing all of its costs efficiently.
- It directly influences valuation metrics like P/E ratio and the company’s dividend capacity.
- Over time, net income trends reveal how resilient and profitable the business model really is.
📘 Free Cash Flow (FCF)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow shows how much actual cash remains after a company covers its operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF reflects a company’s real financial strength – regardless of accounting profits. It shows how much flexibility a company has for dividends, share buybacks, or debt reduction.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High free cash flow means the company generates real, usable cash – independent of reported net income.
- It’s often the most reliable base for sustainable dividends and buybacks.
- Declining FCF can be an early warning sign – even when profits appear stable.
📘 Revenue Growth
📈 What is it?
Revenue growth shows how much a company’s sales have changed compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on forward projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected revenue ÷ Revenue in prior year − 1) × 100
Forward growth is based on analyst estimates for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Rising revenue signals growing demand, business expansion, and market share gains – especially important for growth-oriented companies.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Growth is the engine of long-term value creation – especially in tech and growth sectors.
- What matters is not just current growth, but its sustainability.
- Forward projections reflect whether analysts expect continued momentum – or a slowdown.
📘 EBITDA Growth
📈 What is it?
EBITDA growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) has increased or decreased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBITDA ÷ EBITDA from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Growing EBITDA indicates improving operational profitability – regardless of financing or accounting effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Strong EBITDA growth signals operational efficiency and scalability – especially during growth phases.
- EBITDA growth can be an early indicator of margin and earnings expansion – but should be assessed alongside revenue and EBIT.
📘 EBIT Growth
📈 What is it?
EBIT growth shows how much a company’s operating profit (after depreciation, but before interest and taxes) has increased compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected EBIT ÷ EBIT from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate is based on analyst projections for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EBIT growth is a direct indicator of a company’s business performance – taking into account capital intensity through depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Rising EBIT signals improving operating profitability – even after accounting for depreciation.
- It’s especially important for evaluating companies with significant capital expenditures.
- Combined with revenue and EBITDA growth, EBIT growth provides a well-rounded view of operational progress.
📘 Net Income Growth
📈 What is it?
Net income growth shows how much a company’s bottom-line profit has increased or decreased compared to the previous year – both on a trailing basis (TTM) and based on analyst projections.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Forward = (Expected net income ÷ Net income from prior year − 1) × 100
The forward estimate reflects analysts’ expectations for the current fiscal year.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net income is the ultimate measure of profitability. Growing net income signals stronger efficiency, cost control, and sustainable earnings power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Stronger net income boosts valuation, dividend potential, and investor confidence.
- If profits stall while revenue grows, it may signal margin pressure.
📘 Free Cash Flow Growth
📈 What is it?
Free cash flow (FCF) growth shows how a company’s available cash – after covering operating expenses and capital expenditures – has changed compared to the previous year.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Free cash flow reflects real financial strength. Growing FCF indicates more flexibility for dividends, share buybacks, and reinvestment.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Declining FCF may point to rising investments, increasing costs, or weaker operating performance.
- Especially for dividend investors, FCF growth is critical – since dividends are paid from actual available cash.
- A negative trend isn't always bad, but it deserves closer attention.
📘 Gross Margin
📈 What is it?
Gross margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains after deducting the direct costs of goods sold (like materials and production). It represents the company’s “raw profit” before fixed costs, taxes, and interest.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Or simply: Gross Margin = Gross Profit ÷ Revenue × 100
🏛️ Why is it important?
Gross margin indicates how efficiently a company can produce or procure what it sells. It is a key measure of product-level profitability and pricing power.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high gross margin suggests strong pricing power and efficient production.
- Falling margins may signal rising input costs or competitive pressure.
- Compared to peers, gross margin offers insights into the quality of a business model.
📘 EBITDA Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBITDA margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as operating profit before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization.It reflects operating efficiency without being distorted by financing or accounting factors.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBITDA margin reveals how much operating income a company generates per dollar of revenue – independent of capital structure and tax effects.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBITDA margin reflects strong core profitability – before accounting distortions.
- It allows for effective comparisons across companies and sectors.
- A stable or growing margin signals efficient cost control and business scalability.
📘 EBIT Margin
📈 What is it?
The EBIT margin shows what percentage of revenue remains as operating profit after depreciation but before interest and taxes.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
The EBIT margin reflects a company’s core profitability while accounting for capital intensity (e.g. machinery, infrastructure). It’s especially useful for comparing businesses with different levels of depreciation.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high EBIT margin shows that the company remains efficient even after factoring in depreciation.
- It’s especially relevant for capital-intensive industries.
- Stable or rising EBIT margins over time are a strong indicator of pricing power and business quality.
📘 Net margin
📈 What is it?
Net margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as bottom-line profit after deducting all costs, interest, taxes, and depreciation.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
Net margin reflects a company’s overall efficiency – across operations, financing, and taxation. It shows how much actual profit is generated from each dollar of revenue.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high net margin means the company is not only strong operationally but also manages financing and taxes efficiently.
- Peer comparisons reveal business quality and competitiveness.
- Declining margins despite revenue growth can be a red flag for rising costs or inefficiencies.
📘 Free cash flow margin
📈 What is it?
The free cash flow (FCF) margin shows how much of a company’s revenue remains as actual free cash after covering all operating expenses and capital expenditures.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
This margin reflects the true liquidity generated by the business – independent of accounting rules or depreciation. It’s especially relevant for dividends, buybacks, and reinvestment decisions.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high FCF margin means a company consistently generates strong cash flow.
- It’s a positive signal for financial stability and shareholder returns.
- The long-term trend is key – a declining margin may indicate rising investments or weakening operating efficiency.
📘 Earnings per share (EPS)
📈 What is it?
Earnings per Share (EPS) shows how much profit is attributable to a single share – and is one of the most important metrics for evaluating a company's performance.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The diluted share count reflects potential new shares that could be issued through options, convertible bonds, or other rights.
🏛️ Why is it important?
EPS is the basis for many key valuation metrics like P/E ratio, PEG ratio, or payout ratio. It enables comparisons of profitability across companies, regardless of their size.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- EPS captures per-share profitability and is especially useful for comparisons over time or with analyst estimates.
- Rising EPS may signal consistent growth or share buybacks.
- Important: Always use diluted EPS for more realistic valuations – especially in companies with stock-based compensation.
📘 Free cash flow per share (FCF per share)
📈 What is it?
Free Cash Flow per Share shows how much free cash flow a company generates per outstanding share – after investments, but before dividends or debt repayments.
🧮 How is it calculated?
Free cash flow is calculated as operating cash flow minus capital expenditures (CapEx).
🏛️ Why is it important?
FCF per Share reveals how much real cash is available per share – useful for dividends, buybacks, or reducing debt. Unlike net income, free cash flow is harder to manipulate and often seen as a more reliable metric.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- High FCF per share signals strong financial flexibility.
- It shows how much capital the company can effectively reinvest or return to shareholders.
- Particularly relevant for dividend payers and capital-efficient businesses.
📘 Short interest
📈 What is it?
Short interest indicates how many shares of a company are currently sold short – that is, borrowed and sold by investors who expect the price to decline.
🧮 How is it calculated?
It reflects the percentage of a company’s shares that are being shorted relative to the total shares available.
🏛️ Why is it important?
Short interest serves as a sentiment indicator: A high value may signal skepticism or bearish expectations – but also increases the potential for a short squeeze if prices rise unexpectedly.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- Low short interest usually indicates market confidence in the company.
- High short interest can be a warning sign – or an opportunity if sentiment shifts.
- Especially relevant in volatile markets or ahead of key earnings releases.
📘 Employees
📈 What is it?
The employee count shows how many people a company employs worldwide – offering insights into its size, structure, and business model.
🧮 How is it calculated?
🏛️ Why is it important?
It helps assess operational scale, labor intensity, and cost structure. Combined with revenue and profit, it enables key metrics like revenue per employee or productivity.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high headcount can signal operational complexity – but also significant growth capacity.
- Revenue per employee is a key indicator of efficiency.
- Especially useful for comparing tech, industrial, or service-heavy companies.
📘 Turnover per employee
📈 What is it?
Revenue per employee indicates how much revenue a company generates on average per employee – a key measure of efficiency and productivity.
🧮 How is it calculated?
The employee count is typically taken from the most recent annual report.
🏛️ Why is it important?
This metric helps compare business models – especially between labor-intensive and technology-driven companies. A high value suggests automation, operational efficiency, or strong value creation per head.
🧮 Calculation
🎯 What does this mean for investors?
- A high revenue per employee indicates a scalable and margin-strong business model.
- A low figure may reflect labor-intensive operations or lower value-add.
- Especially helpful when comparing tech companies to industrial or service sectors.
LiveWire Group Stock Analysis
Analyst Opinions
6 Analysts have issued a LiveWire Group forecast:
Analyst Opinions
6 Analysts have issued a LiveWire Group forecast:
LiveWire Group Events
Past Events
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MAY
5
Q1 2026 Earnings Call
5 months ago
|
|
FEB
10
Q4 2025 Earnings Call
8 months ago
|
StocksGuide Free
LiveWire Group — Q1 2026 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Harley-Davidson 2026 First Quarter Investor and Analyst Conference Call. Please be advised that today's conference call is being recorded.
I would now like to hand the call over to Shawn Collins. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. This is Shawn 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, Artie Starrs; and Chief Financial and Commercial Officer, Jonathan Root.
With that, let me turn it over to Harley-Davidson CEO, Artie Starrs.
Thank you, Shawn, and good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q1 2026 financial results as well as an introduction to our new strategic plan, which we're calling "Back to the Bricks".
I'll begin with an overview of our Q1 performance. Jonathan will then provide additional financial commentary before we turn to our strategy. Before I get into it, I'd like to take a moment to acknowledge our deeply committed and passionate Harley-Davidson employees who work tirelessly to bring Harley-Davidson alive across the world. Thank you, Team HD.
Starting with retail sales, we're pleased with our performance this quarter. North America delivered a 14% increase versus the prior year, contributing to global retail sales growth of 8% in what remains a challenging consumer environment. These results reflect the impact of the actions we've taken to drive demand and improve execution. As noted on the Q4 earnings call, dealer health and inventory levels remain a key focus for the company.
During the quarter, we reduced global inventory by 22% year-over-year as we continued to prioritize dealer inventory sell-through and aligning wholesale shipments with retail demand. We'll share more detail on this in our strategy discussion.
Strengthening dealer relationships has also remained a priority. We recognize the critical role our dealer network plays in the Harley-Davidson ecosystem, and we're encouraged by the renewed sense of partnership and momentum across the network. This will be an important driver as we move forward into our next chapter.
During the quarter, we also formally reopened our Juneau Avenue headquarters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, affectionately referred to by our Harley-Davidson community as the Bricks, with our employees at headquarters returning to the office for the first time since 2020.
Finally, we've been encouraged by the early reception to our new marketing platform, RIDE. I'll speak more about the brand platform and the value we believe it will bring as part of our strategy presentation.
With that, I'll turn it over to Jonathan.
Thank you, Artie, and good morning to all. I plan to start on Page 4 of the presentation, where I will briefly summarize the financial results for the first quarter. Subsequently, I will go into further detail on each business segment.
Let me start with our consolidated financial results for the first quarter of 2026. Consolidated revenue in the first quarter was down 12%, driven primarily by HDFS revenue being down 54% as it moved into a new capital-light model after the closing of the HDFS transaction, where we sold a significant part of the retail loan book and agreed to a forward flow in which we expect to sell approximately 2/3 of future originations.
Consolidated operating income in the first quarter came in at $23 million compared to operating income of $160 million in Q1 of 2025. This was driven by a significant year-over-year decline in operating income at both HDMC and HDFS as we expected. The operating loss at LiveWire was $18 million, which was in line with our expectations and $2 million favorable to a year ago. In Q1, earnings per share was $0.22, which compares to $1.07 in Q1 of 2025.
Now turning to Page 5 and HDMC retail performance. In Q1, North American retail sales of new motorcycles were up 14% versus prior year with approximately 24,000 motorcycles sold. In Q1, retail sales of new motorcycles outside of North America were down 4% versus prior year with approximately 10,000 motorcycles sold, resulting in Q1 global retail sales of new motorcycles being up 8% versus the prior year with a total of approximately 34,000 motorcycles retailed.
While we are relatively pleased with the start to the year, particularly in the U.S., we remain mindful of the global consumer discretionary landscape, which remains uneven. We are aware that pricing continues to be on the top of customers' minds given the current global setup that includes inflationary pressures, interest rates that continue to run above recent historical lows and global geopolitical uncertainty.
In North America, Q1 retail sales were up 14%, where U.S. retail sales were up 16% and Canada retail sales were down 8%. Results were driven by continued strength in our Touring and Trike models as consumers reacted well to our new 2026 motorcycle launch and targeted customer incentives. This translated into a significant market share gain with Harley-Davidson reaching 38% of the U.S. 601 CC+ market, up 2 percentage points year-over-year. Dealer inventory in North America declined 21% year-over-year, reflecting a more balanced setup as we enter the main riding season.
In EMEA, Q1 retail sales posted a modest decline of 3%. In the quarter, performance reflected a subdued economic environment in Europe, although supported with early model year 2026 product momentum across the continent as evidenced by the quick sell-through of new units that began arriving later in Q1. The Rev Max platform continued to outperform the broader portfolio, led by Adventure Touring, which showed strong growth year-over-year. In addition, from a market share standpoint, we moved from 2% to 4% of share in the European market in Q1.
In Asia Pacific, Q1 retail sales declined by 9%. In the quarter, we experienced modest declines in the core portfolio, including Touring, Trike and Softail, reflecting broad-based pressure across Japan, Australia and China, partially offset by positive results in our noncore motorcycle portfolio with strength in Adventure Touring.
In Latin America, Q1 retail sales delivered another strong quarter with retail up 21%, where both Brazil, our largest Latin American market and Mexico were up, while other Latin American countries were down modestly year-over-year. Touring and Trike were the standout categories in the market. Dealer inventory at the end of Q1 of '26 was down 22% versus the end of Q1 of '25. Specifically, North American dealer inventory was down 21% and dealer inventory outside of North America was down 23%. This has allowed Harley-Davidson dealers to start the upcoming 2026 riding season with a largely appropriate setup.
In addition, the quality of dealer inventory is healthier today than 1 year ago as it is more current from a model year standpoint. At the end of Q1, North America dealer inventory was comprised of approximately 2/3 of current model year 2026 motorcycles. In comparison, in the prior year period, a little less than 1/2 of all dealer inventory was current model year. We expect this improvement in healthy dealer inventory to pay dividends in future periods and believe it sets Harley-Davidson and our dealers up for greater success.
Before we get into revenue, let's conclude with some information on wholesale shipments. From a wholesale shipment perspective, in Q1 of 2026, we delivered approximately 37,300 units compared to 38,600 units in Q1 of 2025, which is down 3% year-over-year. As we are now beginning the prime riding season in North America, we have recently heard from dealers that they could benefit from more inventory with regard to particular places, models and trim levels. This is a good sign, and we expect to ship more units on a year-over-year basis in Q2 and Q4, while running lower in Q3 in comparison to the prior year period. We expect this will get us to a more even shipment cadence across the quarters in comparison to what we have delivered in recent years.
Now turning to Page 6 and HDMC revenue performance. In Q1, HDMC revenue decreased by 2%, coming in at $1.1 billion. We point out that from a business line standpoint, motorcycles came in at $836 million, D&A plus apparel came in at $200 million and licensing and other came in at $20 million. The drivers of overall revenue at HDMC included lower volume or shipments and lower net pricing and incentive spend. These were partially offset by favorable foreign currency.
Now turning to Page 7 and HDMC margin performance. In Q1, HDMC gross profit came in at 25.3%, which compares to 29.1% in the prior year. The year-over-year decrease was driven by the unfavorable impacts of increased tariff costs of $45 million in Q1, which will be covered in more detail on the next slide, net pricing and incentive spend due to effective sell-through of prior model year dealer inventory. Product mix, lower volumes and higher-than-expected supply management costs as we work through a unique supplier situation. These were partially offset by the positive effects of tariff recoveries, settlement from prior years and favorable foreign exchange.
In Q1, operating expenses totaled $248 million, which was $49 million higher compared to prior year. This falls into 2 broad buckets. The first piece is a restructuring expense of $15 million, driven by costs incurred related to strategic changes, including the company's decision to eliminate certain roles, resulting in onetime employee termination benefits and other restructuring charges. The second piece consists of $34 million of additional costs in the quarter, specifically due to higher warranty spend due to select product recalls, select people costs primarily related to executive team changes on a year-over-year basis, increased marketing spend as the marketing development fund matures and limited other discrete expenses to operate the business. In Q1, HDMC had operating income of $19 million, which compares to operating income of $116 million in the prior year period.
Turning to Slide 8. In 2026, the overall global tariff regulatory environment continues to evolve. There are a number of factors at play in this space, including the potential for increased tariff recoveries, evolution in the application of IEEPA Section 122 and updates to Section 232 steel and aluminum tariffs. In Q1, we saw the most significant year-over-year impact in tariffs we expect to experience this year. This is a result of the increased tariff levels, which were initially put in place beginning in Q2 of 2025.
In Q1 of ' 26, the cost of new or increased tariffs was $45 million. As tariff policy changes, there are lags associated with the various tariff levels as these adjustments work their way through our parts inventory imported prior to the current Section 232 pronouncement. We continue to pursue mitigation actions where possible and pursue tariff recoveries when applicable. We note that recent U.S. administration tariff regulation announced in early April included an exemption on certain motorcycles and for parts and accessories for the use in the manufacturing of motorcycles.
We would note that Harley-Davidson is a business very centered in and around the United States. 3 of our 4 manufacturing centers are U.S.-based and 100% of our U.S. core product is manufactured in the U.S. This change will serve in helping mitigate the impact to tariffs to Harley-Davidson and enable us to strengthen our commitment to U.S. manufacturing. At this point in time, we expect the cost of increased tariffs to be in a range of $75 million to $90 million for the full year 2026, which is favorable to what we guided to in our prior quarter. From a cadence perspective, our expected tariff amount will decrease consecutively as we work our way across the remaining quarters in 2026.
Turning to HDFS on Page 9. At Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Q1 revenue came in at $112 million, a decrease of 54%, driven by lower interest income due to the decline in retail receivables related to the sale of loan assets as part of the new HDFS transaction. Other income within HDFS revenue was favorable year-over-year due primarily to new servicing fees, investment income and new gains on third-party loan sales. HDFS operating income was $22 million, representing an operating income margin of 19.9%.
On the expense side, interest expense and the provision for credit loss expense were both significantly lower, which was due to the decreased size of the retail loan portfolio and related debt on a year-over-year basis and as expected, with the change in strategy associated with the HDFS transaction. The HDFS team continues to manage expenses prudently with operating expenses decreasing by $1 million versus prior year.
Turning to Page 10. In Q1, HDFS' annualized retail credit loss ratio on managed loans was 3.6%, which compares to 3.8% in the year ago period. We are pleased with HDFS loan origination activities as total retail loan originations in Q1 were up 14%, coming in at $671 million in Q1. Total gross financing receivables were $2.5 billion at the end of Q1, where retail receivables were $1.3 billion and commercial receivables were $1.2 billion.
Now turning to Slide 11 for the LiveWire segment. For the first quarter of 2026, LiveWire revenue increased 87% over prior year, driven by increases in electric motorcycle and basic brand electric balance bike units. Consolidated operating loss decreased by 11%, resulting from improved gross profit and lower selling, administrative and engineering expenses. In turn, this drove an improvement of over 25% in net cash used by operating activities in Q1 of '26 compared to Q1 of '25.
For 2026, LiveWire's focus is heavily geared around the imminent launch of its S4 Honcho products, in particular, continued network expansion, cost savings and improvements and product innovation and development focused on products that will be profitable and positive drivers of cash flow.
Now turning to Slide 12, wrapping up with consolidated Harley-Davidson, Inc. financial results. We had net cash use of $228 million from operating activities in Q1, which compares to $142 million of operating cash in the prior year period. Operating cash flow was lower than the prior year due to reduced cash inflows at HDMC on lower wholesale shipments. Also at HDFS, the operating cash flow decreased due to reduced interest income and due to new originations of retail finance receivables under the forward flow arrangement that were classified as held for sale, which is classified as an operating activity under U.S. GAAP.
As a result, the originations to be sold to our strategic partners or outflows reduced cash flow from operations as there were no comparative retail finance receivable originations classified as held for sale in the first quarter of the prior year. This was partially offset by the inflows from the proceeds from the sale of retail finance receivables classified as held for sale. This will remain a distinct year-over-year item as we move through 2026 as a result of the HDFS transaction, which concluded throughout the second half of 2025.
Total cash and cash equivalents ended Q1 of 2026 at $1.8 billion compared to $1.9 billion a year ago. As part of our share buyback strategy, in Q4 of 2025, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement to repurchase $200 million of shares of the company's common stock. As part of the ASR agreement, we received $160 million or 80% of the notional worth of shares or 6.3 million shares delivered to us before December 31, 2025, with the remainder expected to be delivered in early 2026.
On February 12, 2026, our ASR was concluded, and we received an additional 3.1 million shares on February 13, 2026. These shares had a value of $64.7 million, considering the share price during the ASR's performance period. Beyond the ASR, the company also repurchased another 3.5 million shares on a discretionary basis for $63.3 million in the first quarter of 2026. Therefore, in Q1, we repurchased a total of 6.6 million shares worth $128 million on a discretionary basis.
We note that since our Q2 of 2024 earnings announcement, where we also announced a plan to repurchase $1 billion worth of our shares through 2026 that we have repurchased a total of 26.8 million shares. That is a total value of $726 million of Harley-Davidson shares purchased. We are pleased with the performance and have decided to conclude reporting on this program as we look forward to aligning our capital allocation approach with the updated strategy that Artie and I will walk through shortly. Share buybacks remain an important part of our capital allocation strategy, and you will hear more on this, including a refreshed and updated approach to capital return to shareholders.
As we enter the main riding season, we remain pleased with our dealer inventory levels and leading market share position in the U.S. new model year '26 motorcycle launch, including the new limited touring motorcycles and the all-new redesigned Trike models. We are also pleased with the reception to a number of new, more affordable motorcycles, which have a focus on critical price points to help stoke demand. While we are not changing our financial guidance, we would note that our optimism on the year has increased. This is due in large part to our retail results in North America, and we are also pleased with the early action of our cost reduction work.
For the full year 2026, the company reaffirms its guidance and continues to expect at HDMC retail units of 130,000 to 135,000 and wholesale units of 130,000 to 135,000. We believe that global dealer inventory levels are healthy, and therefore, we expect retail and wholesale to have a largely one-to-one relationship in 2026. In line with my earlier comments versus prior year, we expect shipments to be higher in Q2, relatively flat in Q3 and then up again in Q4. At the same time, we continue to expect production units at HDMC to be lower than wholesale units shipped in 2026 as we work to prudently manage overall company inventory levels. For 2026, we expect this will have a deleverage impact, which will put pressure on operating leverage and operating margin, but we expect to come into alignment by next year.
In addition, we still expect to face a greater overall cost for incremental tariffs in 2026 compared to 2025 and which we covered in detail previously. As a reminder, in full year 2025, we incurred a cost of $67 million in new or increased tariffs. And in 2026, we forecast a cost of between $75 million to $90 million of new or increased tariffs based upon current tariff levels and versus the '24 baseline. This is an update to the prior range we provided of $75 million to $105 million.
At HDMC, we expect operating income of positive $10 million to a loss of $40 million. At HDFS, we expect operating income of $45 million to $60 million. As a reminder, the new business model at HDFS, given the HDFS transaction, where Harley-Davidson Financial Services now employs a capital-light derisked business model and has a significantly changed financial earnings profile relative to before the transaction. For LiveWire, we are forecasting an operating loss in the range of $70 million to $80 million.
And with that, I'll turn it back to Artie to cover our strategic plan.
Now turning to our strategic plan for Harley-Davidson. On behalf of our Harley-Davidson community, Jonathan and I are excited to introduce our Back to the Bricks plan, designed to reignite brand enthusiasm with riders around the world while driving profitable growth for our dealers and shareholders. It is grounded in the work we've done since October. We've spent significant time assessing the business, engaging deeply with dealers and riders and most recently through a global roadshow where we connected directly with the majority of our dealer network and all of our global dealer advisory councils.
The Back to the Bricks plan will restore Harley-Davidson and position the company for growth. First, we are intensely focused on leveraging Harley-Davidson's competitive advantages, specifically brand, diversified revenue channels and most notably, P&A and financing products and our dealer network.
Second, we are leaning into a true win-win model with our dealer network. Our dealers are not only our retail channel, but the frontline builders of our rider community. They are the true source of strength and a competitive advantage. When our dealers win, the enterprise wins and so do our shareholders.
Third, we have already taken immediate actions to recapture share by better serving the large and community of riders where Harley-Davidson has a clear right to win.
Fourth, we're doing this from a position of strength and plan to leverage our balance sheet, bolstered by cost and restructuring actions to enable both investment in the business and returns to shareholders. We are executing against a clear path to strong and growing free cash flow and EBITDA margin. And lastly, we brought on some great leadership talent to support the business as we enter this new chapter for the company.
Moving to Slide 3. There are really 3 things that define Harley-Davidson. First, we are a 123-year young brand that designs and manufactures the best motorcycles in the world, combining iconic design, precision engineering and a look, sound and feel that is unmistakably Harley-Davidson.
Second, through our best-in-class dealer network, we serve a global community across segments we've helped define over decades. Our riders show up in powerful ways through HOG chapters, rallies, events and by giving back to their local communities.
And third, maybe most importantly, is the culture of riding. Since starting at the company, I've spent time with riders and dealers at events, rallies and swap meets and what stands out is the emotional connection. Riders talk about their motorcycles, their rides and their community in deeply personal ways. For them, riding isn't just about getting somewhere. It's about the experience itself. The ride is the destination.
Turning to Slide 4. We're in the midst of a bold restoration of the business to drive value for shareholders. What's clear is that our heritage remains a powerful advantage, not something to preserve, but something to build from. It starts with our portfolio. Taking a step back over the last several years, we leaned heavily into touring and electric. Going forward, we are shifting to a more rider-centric portfolio, one that is more accessible, more customizable and better aligned to the needs of the full spectrum of our riders.
Touring will always remain our core. We're building clear pathways into the brand that support long-term touring growth while also addressing other riding occasions and styles. Importantly, we can do this using our existing platforms, moving from too many of too few to a more balanced lineup. We're also adopting an enterprise profitability model, recognizing that our success is directly tied to the success of our dealers. When dealers win, we win. By aligning Harley-Davidson and dealer economics, we can create more value for riders, stronger profitability for dealers and more dependable cash flow for shareholders. I'll come back to this in more detail shortly.
Another key pillar is parts and accessories. Customization is at the heart of Harley-Davidson. It's how riders make each bike their own, what we often think of as freedom for the soul or more personally, freedom for your soul. We're reestablishing parts and accessories as a core growth driver, one where we have a clear right to win and in alignment with dealers as this is an important component of their profitability. We're also reinforcing motor clothes and apparel, growing from the core of the brand.
On promotions, as inventory has normalized, we are shifting to a more targeted and disciplined approach, one that supports volume while protecting margins. An expanded portfolio will play an important role here as well. From an investment standpoint, we continue to see upside in existing platforms, particularly within touring, but our near-term focus is on executing better with the platforms we already have rather than introducing entirely new ones. By leveraging our existing platforms and powertrain to bring new motorcycles to market, we are operating with a more capital-efficient model.
Finally, we've taken important steps to refocus our brand around our community as reflected in the launch of the RIDE marketing platform. Taken together, we believe these actions position us to revitalize the business by leaning into what has always made Harley-Davidson strong and executing with greater clarity and discipline.
As you can see on Slide 5, we've experienced a decline in retail volumes, and that's had a direct and meaningful impact on both company and dealer performance. At the core of this is a loss of relevancy with riders, most notably with the exit of iconic motorcycles like the Sportster, which limited accessibility and contributed to lower volumes. Additionally, we are excited to introduce Sprint, the perfect entry for many to the Harley-Davidson brand.
At the same time, as volumes declined, our cost base remained largely fixed, putting pressure on margins and driving a greater reliance on broad-based promotions, particularly on higher-priced motorcycles. And importantly, lower throughput has had a direct impact on our dealers, reducing traffic, compressing profitability and limiting the performance of key revenue streams like parts and accessories and service. All of this reinforces a critical point. Restoring profitable volume is central to improving overall performance. And that's exactly what our strategy is designed to address, making the brand more accessible through a combination of portfolio changes, more targeted pricing and promotions and improved operational execution.
Moving to Slide 6. While recent performance has been impacted, the underlying market opportunity remains significant. We see meaningful white space in existing markets, areas where Harley-Davidson has strong legacy equity and a clear right to win. Across new motorcycles, used motorcycles, parts and accessories and apparel, there is share of wallet that we were capturing as recently as 2019 that we are no longer capturing today. That creates a very direct opportunity to regain market share and do so in segments where our brand is already strong. Importantly, this strategy is not about entering new categories where we lack a competitive advantage. It's about doubling down on the categories we know, where we have credibility, scale and deep rider connection. We believe this positions us to regain lost share while driving meaningful volume growth over time.
Now turning to our strengths on Slide 7. The foundation of Harley-Davidson is its legacy, an unparalleled brand with unique American heritage as recognized recently by USA Today as part of their 50 iconic brands that shaped America Series, underpinned by a best-in-class dealer experience, deeply committed riders and craftsmanship that delivers something truly unique. When I first joined the company, those advantages were immediately clear. And as we've looked more closely at the data, they've only become more compelling. We are one of the most recognized and esteemed brands in the category, and in many ways, we help define it.
Our dealer network is a true competitive advantage, consistently delivering a best-in-class customer experience and serving as the frontline of our brand. Our riders have an incredible affinity for Harley-Davidson. They don't just buy our products, they live our brand. It's a level of loyalty and engagement that is difficult to replicate. And all of this is anchored in superior craftsmanship and quality that continues to resonate strongly with our riders. Taken together, these strengths provide a powerful foundation as we execute our plan and move the business forward.
Now turning to our strategic road map on Slide 8. Against the backdrop we've just discussed, we've developed a plan for the next several years that unfolds in 3 clear phases. First is the reset. This phase is already underway and focused on taking cost out, rightsizing dealer inventory, strengthening our dealer relationships and rolling out the ride marketing platform. We're making progress across all these areas, and today, we'll provide an update on that momentum.
Second is the growth phase. Beginning next year, you'll see a more expanded and balanced portfolio designed around what riders want while leveraging the full life cycle of the motorcycle to unlock additional revenue streams. Parts and accessories will play a much larger role, both in dealerships and as a core revenue driver. At the same time, we're refining our promotional approach to be more targeted, driving traffic and volume while preserving profitability.
And third is the acceleration of value creation. As the portfolio becomes more accessible and better aligned to needs of our full spectrum of riders, we see opportunity to deepen ridership engagement. This includes greater participation in the used motorcycle ecosystem as well as further driving adjacent areas like apparel and licensing. With the foundation established in the first 2 phases, we believe we are well positioned to drive more sustainable enterprise growth and wider economic enterprise benefits.
Turning to Slide 9. What are we doing right now? We've already begun putting this plan into action, and we're encouraged by the early momentum. As part of Phase 1, our actions on cost and inventory have been swift and effective. We've moved quickly to reduce headcount and take cost out of cost of goods sales, creating room to reinvest in key growth areas like parts and accessories. As we've previously outlined, we expect to deliver at least $150 million in annual run rate cost savings that will impact 2027 and beyond versus 2025 levels.
At the same time, we've made meaningful progress on inventory. Global retail inventory is now at a much healthier level, down significantly, 22% year-over-year. But we still see opportunity to improve assortment and allocation at the dealer level. Importantly, these actions are starting to translate into results. We're seeing sales momentum return with retail growth and market share gains, including an 8% increase in global retail sales in Q1 2026.
Now turning to our dealers on Slide 10. The Harley-Davidson dealer network is a clear competitive advantage, and our strategy is intentionally designed to support and strengthen their profitability. I firmly believe this company will go only as far as our dealers take us. That's why dealer profitability is a central pillar of our plan. Since joining, I've spent a significant amount of time with dealers, along with the broader leadership team, listening and learning directly from them on the ground. Our focus is on earning their trust and ensuring they're confident and excited about the path forward.
We've already taken action through inventory rightsizing, better alignment on promotions and structural improvements to dealer programs, and we're not done. There are additional actions ahead that we expect to further strengthen dealer economics. Our objective is clear, to materially improve dealer profitability over time, supporting a stronger, more stable network and enabling long-term growth. As shown on the slide, we are targeting a meaningful step-up in dealer profitability over the next several years.
Moving to Slide 11. It's important to understand the role dealers play in the Harley-Davidson ecosystem. Dealer profitability is nonnegotiable and ultimately a win for shareholders. At the core, brick-and-mortar economics and frontline enthusiasm are directly linked. When our dealers are profitable, they can invest in their business, delivering a better rider experience at the point of interaction with our brand. Stronger dealer economics also reduced the need for discounting and OEM promotional support, helping preserve the premium positioning and long-term health of the brand.
Dealers are not just our primary sales channel. They are a powerful marketing engine, building the brand in local communities at scale. When they are successful, we unlock the ability to invest more in rider growth through initiatives like Riding Academy, HOG engagement and events that deepen connection to the brand. And importantly, healthy dealer profitability attracts capital, bringing more investment into the network and supporting long-term rider-centric growth.
Moving to Slide 12. I want to spend a moment on the lens through which we're now viewing growth and profitability. We've done significant work to better understand how we make money as one enterprise, Harley-Davidson and our dealers together. What's clear is that focusing solely on wholesale and retail motorcycle margins is an incomplete view. A motorcycle generates value over its entire life cycle across parts and accessories, service, finance and insurance and ultimately, the used market. And importantly, Harley-Davidson and our dealers participate in that value at different points in time across multiple revenue streams.
So going forward, we're managing the business against this broader enterprise economic model. By increasing new motorcycle volumes, we not only drive profit at the point of sale, we also expand the base of motorcycles in the market, which fuels downstream revenue across all of these channels. We believe this will create a more stable, diversified and sustainable earnings profile over time. It also changes how we think about the portfolio. We intend to bring motorcycles to market in a way that supports the full enterprise profit model, not just the economics of an individual launch or motorcycle. We expect this to reduce pressure on any single product and lead to more balanced performance across cycles.
And importantly, the portfolio changes we're making, particularly around accessibility and customization play directly into this model by supporting higher volumes and stronger life cycle value. Over time, we plan for this to become a compounding growth engine. The return of Sportster and the introduction of new models like Sprint are great examples of how this approach will create value across the system.
We're really excited to announce that our iconic Harley-Davidson Sportster will be returning in 2027. This has been the most requested motorcycle from both our riders and our dealers, and we're bringing it back better than ever. Sportster is a perfect embodiment of Back to the Bricks, and it fits naturally within our enterprise economic model. For context, Sportster has historically been a middle-weight, highly customizable motorcycle with an air-cooled powertrain and accessible starting price point, making it an important entry to the Harley-Davidson brand. While it was discontinued in 2022, it has remained incredibly strong in the used market, often retaining value at or above original MSRP, which speaks to its enduring appeal.
With its accessibility, we expect Sportster to drive higher volumes. And with its customization potential, we expect strong attachment to parts and accessories as riders personalize their motorcycles. Beyond the motorcycle itself, Sportster also creates opportunity across apparel, licensing and the broader rider ecosystem. Importantly, it demonstrates how our strategy generates value across the full life cycle from the initial sale to entry into the used market. Taken together, Sportster is a critical part of our plan to restore volume, strengthen our portfolio and drive long-term enterprise value. We look forward to sharing more specifics later this year.
Additionally, we're excited to bring Sprint to market beginning in the back half of 2026. This lightweight, customizable and accessible motorcycle provides a great entry to the brand for many riders. We are excited to be returning to a space that we haven't been in since the 1960s, and we believe that the Sprint will provide a great starting point for riders to enter the brand as they progress through the portfolio. Over the coming periods, we will be providing more detail on how this aligns with our portfolio planning and lifetime value creation.
Moving to Slide 15 and zooming out to a broader view of the portfolio, we are taking deliberate steps to realign the portfolio, making it more rider-centric and better positioned to replicate the value creation cycle we just discussed across more models. Over the past few years, pricing and portfolio decisions reduced accessibility for some riders, which contributed to lower volumes and ultimately pressure on profitability. We're addressing that directly. Going forward, you'll see a more balanced lineup across price points while still maintaining our premium positioning.
We're also expanding the use of blank canvas motorcycles, which we know is a key differentiator for Harley-Davidson, giving riders more opportunity to personalize their motorcycles through genuine parts and accessories. These changes are informed by deep analysis of the used market, direct dealer engagement and what we've learned from recent promotional activity. Importantly, we see clear gaps in the portfolio that we can address efficiently without starting from scratch. We're leveraging our existing platforms in powertrain, where we see significant room for growth, allowing us to expand the lineup without incremental capital investment. Taken together, this positions us to deliver what riders want, improve accessibility and drive stronger volume and life cycle value across the portfolio.
Now turning to parts and accessories on Slide 16. This is one of our most important revenue channels and a significant growth opportunity. We believe there is a potential to drive 20% to 30% sales growth over time. We also recognize that we've underinvested in this area in recent years. Customization is at the core of the Harley-Davidson experience and a key driver of dealer profitability. No two Harley-Davidson motorcycles on the road are the same, and that's exactly how riders want it. So we've laid out a clear road map to rebuild our leadership in parts and accessories, leveraging our dealer network and existing manufacturing and supply chain capabilities. That starts with expanding our assortment, including reinstating approximately 30% of SKUs that were previously eliminated. We're also refocusing on core categories where Harley-Davidson has historically been strong, like seats, exhaust, lighting, windshields and handle bars and pairing that with an increased emphasis on blank canvas motorcycles that are designed for personalization.
Importantly, we're integrating parts and accessories into the motorcycle launch process, ensuring availability at launch, supported by HDFS financing and aligned dealer incentives. As we execute this, we expect stronger dealer performance, increased attachment rates and ultimately, both revenue growth and margin expansion over time.
Turning to Slide 17. We're also refining our approach to promotions. Historically, our promotional activity has been broader and less targeted. More recently, we used promotions to help reset elevated dealer inventory, which, while necessary, put pressure on profitability. Now with inventory at healthier levels, we're shifting to a more disciplined and targeted approach, focused on driving traffic and conversion at a lower cost. An important enabler of this is our expanding portfolio, which allows for more value-based messaging across a broader range of products rather than relying on heavy discounting on a narrower mix.
We're also strengthening our capabilities with recent hires who bring deep experience in performance marketing in automotive retail. And the launch of our marketing development fund in 2025 is a key step in better aligning scale with more effective localized dealer messaging. Together, these efforts are improving how we manage incentive spend, driving more predictable growth while recognizing that many riders don't require heavy promotion to convert. The result is a more efficient model, which we believe will support volume recovery while protecting margins.
Now turning to our marketing approach on Slide 18. Last month, we launched our new brand platform, RIDE, which really brings everything together. It's built on a simple but powerful insight, joy and swagger. At its core, RIDE celebrates the experience of riding and most importantly, our riders themselves. They and their motorcycles are the stars of the show. This reflects a broader shift in how we show up as a brand. We're moving toward more authentic, rider-focused storytelling that reinforces the community and culture at the heart of Harley-Davidson.
We're also reallocating our marketing investments, moving away from a heavier e-commerce spend and toward top-of-funnel brand-building efforts to drive awareness and engagement. You may have even seen us recently on Wheel of Fortune. At the same time, we're making better use of tools like the marketing development fund while upgrading our digital platforms and programs to support both global scale and local activation.
And perhaps most importantly, the power of RIDE is that it gives us a single unified voice while still allowing flexibility for riders and dealers around the world to bring the brand to life in their own way. It connects all aspects of Harley-Davidson, from product to community to marketing under one cohesive platform. And as you can see on the slide, it creates a clear and flexible framework for how we bring the brand to life across riders, dealers and markets around the world. Over time, we expect this to drive stronger engagement, deeper relevance and ultimately, growth.
Now I'll hand it over to Jonathan to take you through the financial section. Jonathan, over to you.
Thanks, Artie. Now turning to our financials on Slide 21. All of the facets of the strategy we've just laid out support our financial growth trajectory over the next few years. We believe we have a clear path to achieving $350 million plus EBITDA in 2027. The path to get there is clear and execution-driven, anchored by roughly $150 million in fixed cost reduction, better alignment between wholesale and retail volumes, the full impact of Sportster and Sprint, targeted expansion in high-margin parts and accessories and more effective disciplined promotions.
Beyond 2027, the story doesn't stop. We expect continued strong growth driven by further cost absorption, a broader P&A and motorcycle portfolio, incremental product improvements and smarter incentive execution. The bottom line is this is a structural step change in profitability with clear levers and meaningful upside ahead.
Now on Slide 22, we'll take a closer look at how we get there. This bridge outlines the key initiatives that will drive EBITDA improvement. In the near term, the focus will be on cost reduction and operating leverage, which we see as the primary drivers of performance. With these actions already underway, we have a clear line of sight to achieving $350 million or more. Beyond 2027, drivers for continued growth will include, but not be limited to, improvements in motorcycle margins and volume, supported by growth in parts and accessories.
Turning to our medium-term targets on Slide 23. We expect to return to sustainable growth across key metrics. We expect to achieve mid-single-digit retail unit growth over the medium term. As Artie discussed, this return to growth will be driven by the significant actions we are taking across our business. Furthermore, we expect the momentum in retail units and other enabling actions to drive mid-single-digit growth in P&A and A&L. Combined with the ongoing inventory rightsizing, we expect this return to growth to have a significant impact on dealer health.
From a margin standpoint, we expect to drive significant improvement in gross margins approaching 30%, while operating expenses as a percentage of sales decreased to less than 20% from the 25% in 2025. Over the midterm, we expect CapEx to remain broadly in line with recent expenditure levels.
In totality, we expect to deliver attractive top line growth and drive towards a 10% to 12% EBITDA margin over the medium term. These targets reflect a more balanced and resilient business model underpinned by the Back to Brick strategy.
I'll now touch briefly on HDFS on Slide 24. We believe that the business remains a highly strategic asset. Following the transaction, we have transitioned to a more capital-light model while maintaining HDFS' role in supporting motorcycle sales and dealer financing. We recently held a call to discuss the HDFS business in greater detail, but at a high level, we expect HDFS to see improved returns while reducing capital intensity. We expect to continue to strengthen HDFS' leading position in powersports and intend to expand our high-value finance and insurance product suite with optimized offers supporting motorcycle sales.
In connection with our enhanced P&A offerings, HDFS plans to leverage additional financing to drive P&A sales. Lastly, we are also better training dealers to maintain the best-in-class penetration rate of HDFS. With all this in mind, we are targeting $125 million to $150 million in operating income for the business by 2029.
Turning to capital allocation on Slide 25. Our priorities remain consistent. We will reinvest in the business where we see opportunities to drive growth across the key initiatives of our strategy. We also remain committed to returning capital to our shareholders through share buybacks and dividends. Additionally, we remain open to opportunistic value-additive M&A.
And with that, I'll hand it back to Artie.
Thank you, Jonathan. To conclude, Harley-Davidson is built on a strong foundation, an iconic brand, a deeply loyal rider base and a differentiated dealer network. We're excited about the path forward. Our dealers are energized, and we're seeing real enthusiasm from the rider community around Back to the Bricks. This strategy is intentionally grounded in our core strengths, and we're doubling down on what makes Harley-Davidson unique, especially our dealer network.
Importantly, execution is already underway, and we're seeing early signs that our actions are delivering results. We're doing this from a position of strength with a solid financial foundation to support both investment in the business and returns to shareholders. And we have the right team in place, energized and equipped with the experience needed to deliver on this plan. We remain committed to working closely with our dealers every step of the way to create value for our riders and ultimately for our shareholders.
Thank you for your time this morning. And with that, we'll take your questions.
[Operator Instructions] We'll take our first question from today, and that is from the line of Robin Farley from UBS.
2. Question Answer
Great. Two questions, if I may. First is just wondering what medium term is, 2029 medium term, just to kind of put a finer point on thinking about the targets. And then the other question is a little bit trickier with tariffs. Some of the bridge to your 2027 EBITDA is from, I guess, lower tariffs lumped in with some other things. And so if you could just help us think about that what you're expecting, what's factored in, in terms of tariff refunds into that?
And your full year '26 guide was unchanged, but tariffs seem a little better. So maybe there's an offset there. And then just -- I don't know if the manufacturing for Sprint, if there -- if you're assuming tariffs on that, that's going to be outside the U.S. and potentially tariffs. So I know that's a lot of tariffs balled up into one, but just whatever you want to address.
Great. Robin, thank you. It's Artie. I appreciate the questions. I'll take the first one, and then I'll let Jonathan handle the tariff specifics. When we say medium term, we mean 3 to 5 years. So hopefully, that helps. And on the tariff piece, Jonathan?
Yes. So from a -- so thank you, Robin. From a tariff standpoint, I think when you look at our 2026 estimate, we obviously have a midpoint of $83 million. On that, if you look within the first quarter, we had $45 million in tariffs that were paid. That leaves $38 million, again, just using the midpoint for simplicity for the balance of the year. Our viewpoint is that, that tariff amount will consecutively decrease by quarter as we benefit from the current tariff structure that we laid out on our slides.
So in effective Q2 as we got into April, there were some changes from an overall tariff philosophy perspective that were put out there. You see the benefits of those. Obviously, that sort of accrues over time. We think that, that sets us up for 2027. We're not providing '27 guidance at this point. But a 2027 that is arguably more attractive than where we are from a 2026 perspective. So you can infer and use some of your own judgment on where that lands.
From a tariff refund perspective, there's obviously a tremendous number of companies, large and small, across the United States that are working on tariff refund and approach to tariff refund right now. Obviously, we will be working and following all of the guidelines that we need to from a tariff refund perspective, but a little difficult for us to talk through some of the specifics on timing and when all of those dollars will hit throughout the year. We certainly have a little bit of benefit baked into our expectations, but it's not a tremendous driver for us. It's really more as we look what are the current tariff rules that are in place, how do we think that will accrue and you see the benefit that we've put in place from a guide perspective versus what we originally guided to for 2026.
Our next question comes from the line of James Hardiman with Citigroup.
So 2 questions on sort of the Back to Bricks opportunity. I guess, first, when we talk to investors, the 1,000-pound gorilla, fair or not, is sort of the demographic backdrop, right? Specifically lower popularity of motorcycling, if you think about younger generations, maybe relative to their baby boomer counterparts. Artie, obviously, that's something that you've had to consider. How does the Back to the Bricks address that? Obviously, you've got some market share recapture goals that are pretty aggressive. Is there any concern that market share gains could be offset by category declines if those demographic headwinds persist? And I did have a follow-up if we could.
Sure. James, thanks for your question. I think the biggest thing in this strategy Back to the Bricks is we're prioritizing rider needs in a rider-centric portfolio. So we specifically called out 2 examples of how we're doing that. The Sportster, one of our most iconic motorcycles as recently as 5, 6 years ago, the market for that motorcycle is 35,000 to 40,000 plus on a global basis. Our riders and many younger riders and our dealers have expressed it is the #1 universal request from the Motor Company to deliver on a great Harley-Davidson Sportster and what we're talking about today is the 883. And so when I look at the demographics, how young people have always entered our brand over 123 years, it has been motorcycles like the Sportster. And over the last 30 or 40 years, the Sportster has been a critical entry point to the brand.
The second motorcycle is the Sprint. We have not had a motorcycle like the Sprint in some time. We see it filling an important need in Riding Academy. As someone who recently went through Riding Academy, being able to get on a motorcycle and then buy that same or a similar motorcycle is a gap in our current portfolio, which we're extremely enthusiastic about what the Sprint is going to do. And I'd remind you that the number of M designations, at least in the United States right now, is quite strong, as strong as it's been. And we see the opportunity for us as we present the brand, as you look at the marketing campaign, this concept of joy and swagger is something that we believe is and will resonate with young people. It's core to bringing young people into the brand over many, many years, which the brand had done successfully. So I'm quite optimistic. And the portfolio of motorcycles we're bringing forward, I think, addresses this well.
That's great. And it's a great sort of dovetail into sort of my follow-up question. Obviously, as we think about your medium-term targets of mid-single-digit retail growth, most specifically. I think if investors felt comfortable with that number alone, this would probably be a $40 or $50 stock, right? But help us understand that target while factoring in the return of Sportster and the introduction of Sprint. How much of that retail growth is coming from those items? I'm just trying to understand sort of the organic versus the inorganic contributors to that mid-single-digit retail growth. Can you get to a place where the organic piece is also growing at a nice clip?
Sure. So thanks for the question. The Sportster is an important part, and Sprint obviously complements it as well. I referenced the volumes on Sportster historically. I'll go back to -- we feel that if we meet our riders where they're at, we can grow at these levels and beyond. I'm not going to give a specific number in terms of how much Sportster constitutes the amount of growth, but just based on historical numbers of Sportsters that have sold and a projected number of Sprint, we believe that a significant portion of the growth will come from there.
In addition to that, this concept of decontented or blank canvas motorcycles that we referenced in the presentation is something our dealers have been asking for. And it does a couple of things. Number one is it leverages existing platforms and powertrains that we have and provides more accessibility across Touring and Softail, which is extremely exciting. And I'll remind everybody that some of these things where in Q4, we took action with things like our Solo introduction, they're already working.
So some of the retail success that we saw in Q1, we've effectuated in these plans. So I'm very enthusiastic about growth in both cruising and touring with a more distributed and accessible portfolio of motorcycles. Sportster is a big part of it. And given what's sold historically in Sportster, I'm quite confident and what's happening in the used marketplace on Sportster, if you look up in some of the used market channels, it's extremely exciting to see residuals maintain, and it's difficult to get your hands on an 883 right now, which means there's a real need.
James, the one piece that I would add too is, as you refer back to what was in the strategy deck, there's a page in there that talks through the multiyear view of motorcycle and the ancillary revenue streams. And so as you listen to Artie talk through changes to the portfolio, some of the kind of early wins that we've been seeing with Solo models and some of the benefits that our price point focus is beginning to drive, that obviously has showed up in the first quarter from a retail standpoint.
So inside of Q1, we've demonstrated the benefit to the approach that has been laid out. And then from an overall strategy standpoint, as we think through a life cycle and lifetime view, we can really envision people moving through the portfolio. We can see the benefit that accrues to both Harley-Davidson and our dealers that aligns with what Artie talked through, and that's what gives us so much confidence in where we're going with the midterm targets and what's been laid out there.
Our next question is from the line of Joe Altobello with Raymond James.
A couple of questions on the category expansion here. You talked about Sportster, talked about Sprint. It sounds like those are smaller bikes. Are there other sort of subcategories that you're looking to expand into as well just beyond smaller CC engines?
And then the second question, there's a reason why Sportster was discontinued, right? It was hard to make money. So how has the economics of that bike changed?
Great question, Joe. Thank you. Let me take the second one first. So our team has done an extraordinary job over the last couple of years working on this project. And we have the cost at a place that we're extremely comfortable against the expected MSRP that we referenced. More importantly is this enterprise profitability model that has been just a fantastic way for us to communicate with our dealers. And when you think about the value that a motorcycle like Sportster brings to bear, it's very exciting when you look at the parts and accessories relevancy and opportunity. When you look at the service revenue that it brings through our dealerships, when you look at the used market that it feeds and maintains such strong residual values. So we're comfortable with the profitability of the motorcycle itself. However, we're extremely excited about how it juices the economics for the overall enterprise.
To your first question, as it relates to other additions inside the portfolio, you can expect to see in the slide in the materials that references some of the current holes in the portfolio. Those are examples of where our dealers via our riders have specifically asked for motorcycles from us that they expect -- they expect from us and have gotten in the past. Some of these include maybe a little bit more content and many of them include less content. But once again, within existing families and with existing platforms and powertrains. And I can't give much more detail than that.
I will share one tease with you, which you may have seen on social media, which you can expect from us to continue to do, and that's to get feedback from riders at the Mama Tried Show here in Milwaukee, subsequently at Daytona and then the MotoGP race in Austin, we teased a modern expression of our iconic Cafe Racer, and it's gotten extraordinary buzz and feedback from our riding community. And I think that would be the type of motorcycle that is still large in terms of large displacement powertrain that you can expect us to get feedback from riders, and you might see that from us in the market, but we're very excited about the response to it.
That's very helpful, Artie. And if I could just quickly follow up on that. The U.S. market for you has outpaced international for quite some time. Is the Sportster, is the Sprint part of that strategy to grow your international business?
The Sportster is #1 request from global dealers. If you walked into our dealership in Shanghai, if you walked into our dealership in Louisville, Kentucky, if you walked into a dealership in Frankfurt, Germany, and you asked the dealer or sales team lead in those dealerships, "What can Harley-Davidson do for you?" You would hear, "Bring back the Sportster." So yes, but it's global truth in terms of the enthusiasm around that bike.
Our next question is from the line of Andrew Didora with Bank of America.
Just kind of change gears a little bit onto HDFS, Jonathan, the $125 million to $150 million op income target. I guess what kind of -- I know the business has changed here. I guess what kind of receivables balance do you kind of anticipate growing to over through that time frame? And then more importantly, the revenue breakdown of HDFS, how should we think about maybe just interest income contribution versus the more kind of fee-based services income as the segment grows?
Okay. Andrew, thank you for your question. So I'll start with a little session that we put out a couple of weeks ago on HDFS that really walked through that business, the different revenue streams of that business in a little bit more detail than obviously what we've covered here in earnings. That's probably a good refresher in terms of where that business goes as we move forward and what we're seeing. Obviously, from a revenue stream perspective in terms of where we are, we have -- we did at the end of last year, sell off the back book as we've covered. And then on a go-forward basis, we continue to service those loans. So important that we are continuing to make sure that we are retaining the customer focus on the interaction and then a lot that we think we can do as we think through how we move those customers through the portfolio over time in the way that we're marketing to them.
On a near-term basis, we obviously will make sure that for any originations that we have from this point going forward, we retain 1/3 of those originations on our balance sheet and then 2/3 we have the ability to sell off to our partners. We continue to service all of those loans. So over time, the fee income associated with servicing is something that continues to grow. We also retain the revenue streams fully relative to protection products. We also retain the revenue streams fully relative to card products and what we do from a card perspective. And then we also fully retain everything from a wholesale and commercial loan standpoint.
So dial in or tune into the recording that's available on our IR website that will walk through that in more detail. A couple of other pieces that I would call out from an HDFS standpoint. We're really pleased with what we're seeing on our managed annualized retail credit losses. So we have a page inside of the Q1 deck that highlights the year-over-year improvement in credit losses. So pretty excited that we have Q1 '26 kind of back below where we were not only in Q1 of '25, but Q1 of '24.
So overall, I think the dynamics of the business are performing pretty well. We obviously have provided the $125 million to $150 million guide with the viewpoint that, that is a more capital-light model versus the way that we've run historically. So while the operating income is at a different level, we're really excited about the return that, that generates for our shareholders and obviously frees up a lot of capital for us to remain committed to the shareholder priorities that we put out there from a capital allocation standpoint. So I hope that helps.
Okay. And then I know, Jonathan, you mentioned in your prepared remarks like interested in opportunistic M&A. Just curious kind of what could that entail? Is that more on manufacturing capability or brand side? Just curious there.
Yes, Andrew, it's Artie. I think we would look at any M&A as something that would accelerate the core areas of growth that we've laid out in the strategy. So anything that could drive dealer profitability would certainly be of interest. Parts and accessories would certainly be on the table. It was listed as the third thing right now. So it's not a top priority for us. But we do want to call out that anything that would make us stronger and allow us to drive the strategy faster, we would consider.
Our next question is from the line of Molly Baum with Morgan Stanley.
I kind of wanted to ask maybe 1 or 2 about the affordability dynamics right now for your customers. You made a comment in the prepared remarks about how many buyers aren't requiring or don't require having promotions to convert. So can you maybe talk about [ U.S. ] specific for motorcycle buyers at present and what you were seeing from a promotional standpoint in 1Q and maybe even right after you cleared through some of the heavy inventory levels? And then just how you're thinking about affordability more broadly in the current environment and going forward?
Yes. Thanks, Molly. Yes. On affordability, I really look at it as accessibility. So it's certainly price is a part of it, but also meeting riders where they're at and filling their needs with our portfolio. So when we look at Q1, we were pleased certainly with how the promotions restored the dealer network to healthier inventory levels, and that was focused on model year '25 Touring. But we were also pleased with motorcycle sales that weren't promoted. And it demonstrated to us in some of the maybe more modest tweaks we made with the '26 launch in action in Q4. And going forward, having more options available to riders is important, certainly is price, but also features and benefits.
The phrase I'm using internally is we've had too many of too few models on dealer floors. And by using and leveraging existing powertrain, existing platforms, we can have a much broader assortment of motorcycles to present across certainly Sprint and Sportster are good examples, but even within legacy cruising and touring. And what excites me about this is we're going to be more nimble as it relates to promotional activity.
If you think about the promotions in Q1, we had a challenge. We actioned it on model year '25 Touring. But going forward, we will have more diversity within the Touring lineup where we can be a bit more surgical and segmented on which motorcycles we may have to promote at various points in time and maintain healthier margins on the balance, so to speak. It's something dealers have asked for, and we're going to be delivering on that as part of our go-forward plans.
Great. And maybe if I could ask one follow-up on the dealer profitability piece. You've talked a little bit about last quarter about some immediate changes you made with the fuel facility model adjustments, changes to e-commerce strategy. Can you kind of talk about how much of the doubling profitability by '26, doubling again by '29? How much of that is kind of improving the cost base, getting excess inventory out of the system versus how much is structural from these strategy changes that you're making?
What we put in place in Q4 and what is in place currently, we believe is appropriate. There's always the chance that there's small adjustments that we would align with our dealers on. But the Back to the Bricks plan and the targets that we put forward do not contemplate a change in the structural arrangement with our dealers. We -- the e-commerce strategy that we made tweaks to in Q4 as part of the go-forward plans, we instituted a marketing development fund, which is in place right now.
So there's no structural change that -- no material structural change that's contemplated in driving the profitability. It's inventory. It's the right motorcycles at the right time with a rider-centric portfolio and certainly leaning into this marketing campaign, we think it's going to pay a lot of dividends.
Yes. I think, Molly, the piece is worth adding on the dealer profitability side of the equation, too, is that obviously, volume and throughput makes a pretty meaningful change in their bottom line. So as we think through the -- again, going back to the strategy and the page that we built out that really helps you envision all of the different revenue streams for both Harley-Davidson and our dealers, that's a pretty important page to envision the way that we're running the business as we move forward. And so through that, the targets that we have on the mid-single-digit growth rates that you're seeing are really, really important for us and the benefits that accrue to our shareholders, and they are equally important for our dealers.
And then in addition, as you see us really double down on our growth surrounding P&A, not only do you see P&A benefits from an overall revenue and margin standpoint. But inside of the dealer side of the equation, it does also drive some really nice service growth. So we're pretty excited about the way that we actually get our dealers back to something that we think is a much healthier and much better way to run their business.
Our next question is from the line of Tristan Thomas-Martin with BMO Capital Markets.
I just want to kind of circle back to 2 questions that were asked previously. First, just in terms of the Sprint, my understanding is it's being built overseas. So how do kind of recent tariff changes regarding imports potentially impact pricing on that? And then have you -- did you provide a breakdown of your medium-term retail CAGR like your expectations for U.S. versus global markets?
Sure, Tristan. I'll take -- I guess I'll take both of those. As it relates to Sprint, we're finalizing the specific production plans. We did call out that Sportster -- U.S. Sportsters will be made in York, in our York, Pennsylvania facility. And obviously, we're pleased with the revised guidance that we put forward on tariffs for '26. And we do contemplate based on current expectations that we have some favorability in tariffs going into '27 across the portfolio.
And I'm sorry, the second question was CAGR. In terms of CAGR on U.S. versus international, we're not breaking that out. I will tell you that there's not a material change U.S. versus international, primarily because the motorcycles that we're talking about here and the rebalancing of the portfolio and filling in the holes are similar globally. So we generally have the same portfolio around the world right now.
As I mentioned, the dealer request and enthusiasm around Sportster in particular, and motorcycles that are raw blank canvas and allow for parts and accessories, genuine parts and accessories additions to them are globally wanted. And so we don't have, I'd say, a material difference in the growth trajectory by market.
Okay. And just one follow-up on kind of the aftermarket plan. I'm not sure if I'm reading between the lines correctly. But are you -- is there going to be more focus on dealership kind of aftermarket add-ons versus factory aftermarket or kind of factory add-ons?
You mean parts and accessories in our dealerships and customization at the dealership level? Yes. Yes. So what we're saying is we expect to have more motorcycles in the portfolio that are maybe more approachable from a price perspective and have less accessories on them. And then our dealerships would be equipped with the P&A to personalize them for the riders, which is consistent with what the brand has done over many, many years. So it's frankly leaning into a legacy strength where P&A has maybe not been as focus for us with many of our motorcycles, in particular, large touring motorcycles, having a fair amount of content.
Our next question is from the line of David MacGregor with Longbow Research.
I guess the question is on LiveWire and just the role that LiveWire plays in this product portfolio and vision. And just if it is sort of something you can start considering staying with, just how we should think -- thinking maybe that 3- to 5-year outlook you've expressed earlier, just the use of cash for that business over the next 3 to 5 years?
Yes, David, thank you. This is Artie. The first thing I'll say is we're excited about the LiveWire team's efforts this year and the pending launch of the Honcho Bike, which is, I think, an interesting and exciting addition to the portfolio, and we'll be monitoring that closely rest of the year to see how that does, but we're very excited to see how that comes to market.
I'll repeat what I shared on previous earnings as it relates to LiveWire. We funded the loan in the back half of 2025. And that's our outstanding capital commitment, and we don't have intentions to fund the business directly from Harley-Davidson at this point in time.
Is there a way that you can influence demand? I mean you're talking about creating a higher level of interest back to James questions with demographics and -- and I'm just wondering if there's a way that you can shape demand as well on the electric front or you feel like there's steps you could take to maybe create a higher level of engagement.
Yes. We're focused on this Back to the Bricks plan and driving dealer profitability and getting the portfolio in a place that we think riders want from us. Karim and his team are focused on the electric side of the house at this time.
Yes. And David, one piece that I would add, David, on the kind of demand influence is that through what you would have seen with what we delivered in Q1. We certainly believe that when we get the right alignment on marketing, promo and kind of how we run that. We can drive traffic to dealers, and we can drive higher close rates. You heard Artie talk about, I think one piece that always sticks with me from an Artie perspective is too many of too few, and you heard him reference that earlier on the call today. When we think through where the portfolio is going and some of the pieces that we have the ability to drive, we're really excited as the product portfolio becomes a little bit more nuanced in terms of what we're putting into market, we can lean into a lot of the strategies that we've really demonstrated some good success with and do that in a much more targeted way.
So pretty excited about where we're going from the midterm as we think about both what we've demonstrated within Q4 of last year, Q1 of this year and then with what we've lined up from a strategy perspective, where we're going. So excited to see the kind of demonstrated ability that we've put in market so far and how that aligns with the strategy that's built out.
Do you have goals in place for building dealer support for LiveWire?
The LiveWire team is certainly working on their approach to how they manage their dealer relationship.
Our next question is from the line of Brandon Rolle with Loop Capital.
First, just on the dealer profitability improvement. Would you be able to size the headwind from maybe a more standardized rebate program to HDMC margins?
Thanks, Brandon. You're talking about H-D1 Rewards and the holdback?
Yes. I think under the previous management team, they had kind of made the rebate program or rewards program a little more difficult to pull back some margin into the company. So it seems like that's going back out to dealers. And I was wondering if you're able to size the headwind, if any, to HDMC margins.
Yes. I would characterize the headwind as modest over a medium-term period. The previous holdback was variable. So it was based on sales targets, and this is fixed. I wouldn't characterize it as -- it's not the primary driver of the profitability improvements that we're experiencing or forecasting. It's a small amount on a year-over-year basis, but it's not the primary amount.
The larger impact which I heard consistently from our North American dealers, both in the fall and again on a recent road show was the predictability was so important. Predictability of having the fixed holdback was critical in terms of staffing levels, being able to project cash flow throughout the year. And I think it's just an example of us understanding our dealers' businesses and respecting what they need to run their business well and service our riders well. And so I'm pleased where we are and where we are today is precisely what we've modeled going forward.
Okay. Great. And just one last one. On your U.S. dealer network, how do you feel about the current size of the network? Obviously, there's been a lot of dealer consolidation over the last few years. Do you feel like the dealer network at the right size? Or are you going to continue to kind of, I guess, move away from inefficient dealers and I guess, not shrink the dealer network, but maybe make it stronger?
We're always looking for ways to make the dealer network stronger, and we love the fact that we have individual maybe smaller dealer owners, dealer principals in certain markets, and we also feel privileged to have some larger entities that own groups of dealerships. And I think the strength of our brand is a balance of both. One of the amazing things about Harley-Davidson dealerships is we have dealerships along these iconic rides where families, in some cases, have owned these dealerships for decades, in some cases, 70, 80, 90 years and extremely proud of that.
And at the same time, we had recent acquirers in the market where some of our largest and some of our most profitable dealer owners are getting bigger in the system. And I love them all. We're committed to having a healthy dealer network, and we're not precious about size. We're precious about dealers that are enthusiastic about our brand and serve riders well.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have time for a final question from the line of Jaime Katz with Morningstar.
I will make it quick. I guess most of the profit improvement that you guys have, a lot of it looks like it's coming from leverage within SG&A. But can you talk a little bit more specifically about the top opportunities that are being targeted for cost reduction this year? Just so we can get a better idea of where that low-hanging fruit is coming from?
Jamie, thank you for your question. Yes. So it's obviously a balance of some headcount and then obviously some non-headcount-related costs and then also some cost of goods-related actions our teams are -- have done a fantastic job in Q1 at identifying areas. We've obviously done a significant amount of both competitive benchmarking, but also what's the right thing for Harley-Davidson and ensuring that we can grow going forward.
We're not going to provide detail beyond that at this time, but we're very confident in the targets that we put forward and specifically the $150 million plus that we've earmarked for '27 and beyond.
Okay. And then just quickly, I know there was some gross margin impact by pricing and mix. Is there any way to think about how those are trending over the remainder of the year just sort of from where you stand today?
Yes, Jamie, I'll let Jonathan take that one.
Okay. Thank you, Jamie. So as we look at pricing and mix and sort of compare that to Q1 relative stability, I think, as we look through Q2, Q3 and Q4. You did hear in the Q1 financial comments a little bit more information relative to timing. So take a listen to that call in terms of how we talked about year-over-year quarters and what you see there. So from an overall pricing mix perspective, pretty flat to kind of a little bit of favorability in the balance of the year.
As we look at what's coming, we're pretty excited about what we're going to be introducing, and you'll see some of the impacts from that. Please take a listen to what we talked about from a timing standpoint. That will be important as you're thinking through what our trajectory is going to look like for the year. And then you will see a little bit less of an impact from incentive-related activity.
So as we've talked about, we were pretty aggressive in what we did from a Q1 standpoint. We're really pleased with where we landed dealer inventory. And so we think that really set us up for a very successful balance of the year. And hopefully, that sort of helps address your question.
Thank you for your questions. And ladies and gentlemen, that will close down our Q&A session for today. Artie, I'd like to turn it back over to you for any closing comments.
Well, thank you, everybody. I appreciate you participating in today's call. And hopefully, you can tell how enthusiastic our team is, and I am in particular, about our path forward, and we look forward to updating you on our progress, and we'll talk to you at next earnings. Thank you.
Thank you.
LiveWire Group — Q4 2025 Earnings Call
1. Management Discussion
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the Harley-Davidson 2025 Fourth 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 Shawn Collins. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thank you. Good morning. This is Shawn 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, Artie Starrs; and Chief Financial and Commercial Officer, Jonathan Root.
With that, let me turn it over to Harley-Davidson CEO, Artie Starrs.
Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today for our Q4 and full year 2025 results. Before we get into it, I'd like to thank our Harley-Davidson employees, the H-D dealer network and our riders that are listening in this morning. Thank you for all you do every day for the company, living and leading our brand and culture. This marks my first full quarter as CEO.
I've spent this time focused on understanding the core of our business, our people, our dealers, our riders and the realities of the marketplace. Through extensive time on the ground, I've confirmed many of the early observations I shared last quarter. I'm confident there's a clear path to put Harley-Davidson back on the right trajectory, and I now have a sharper view of what it will take to reset the business and get to a more stable operating and financial future in '26 and beyond.
This morning, we will provide more detail on the themes you heard from us on our last call as we work towards our expected strategic plan announcement in May this year. Turning to our fourth quarter results, which we do not believe reflect the full potential of this company. 2025 was a challenging year. And while some of the pressures we are facing are macro-driven, others are firmly within our control, and we are moving with urgency, focus and discipline to address them.
Wholesale shipments and associated margins were negatively impacted by intentional actions to address elevated dealer inventory, particularly touring inventory in North America through interventions on both the supply and demand sides. During the quarter, we reduced wholesale shipments and implemented targeted promotions to accelerate the return to balanced retail inventory levels.
These actions are beginning to deliver results. Rider response has been positive with North American retail sales growth in the quarter, accelerating into December, yielding early indications of improving dealer profitability. We plan to continue these interventions with discipline as we work to optimize retail inventory, positioning the business and our dealer network for more sustainable performance going forward.
That said, we're encouraged by the early green shoots we're seeing. Our immediate priorities are both straightforward and deliberate. First, we believe we are stabilizing the business by restoring dealer confidence and aligning wholesale activity with retail demand. Second, we are finalizing a strategy that we believe builds a durable platform that leans into our core and positions Harley-Davidson to return to sustainable growth.
Early in my tenure, I committed to 3 immediate priorities: improving dealer profitability, reigniting brand momentum and reducing costs. These commitments have not changed. Today, I'll walk you through the immediate actions already underway to advance these priorities.
These actions are in the following areas: restoring our relationship with dealers, improving inventory management, sharpening our customer focus with the right portfolio, leaning further into the strengths of our branded community and enhancing financial flexibility.
Let me start with our dealer network. Harley-Davidson's dealer network is best-in-class, distinguished by unmatched enthusiasm, reach and strength. While the network remains a competitive advantage, dealer health today is uneven with some dealers facing challenges. Dealer health is not optional. It is a critical foundation for our long-term growth and earnings power.
We're resetting the relationship between the Motor Company and our dealers. That relationship must be built on mutual trust and respect, shared objectives, shared accountability and shared success. Healthy inventory levels and a healthy dealer network are nonnegotiable. Over the last couple of months, I continued a series of roundtable discussions with our North American and European dealers.
Most recently, I spent time in our European markets, including attending the Verona Bike Expo and a H.O.G Chapter Morning Meeting. The insights from these engagements were consistent with my U.S. visits, extraordinary passion for the Harley-Davidson brand and strong commitment to the business. Importantly, there is broad alignment around the changes required to drive sustainable growth going forward.
These include healthier inventory levels, improved product mix, simpler and more effective rider engagement programs and greater flexibility to reflect local market conditions. Drawing on my experience in franchise-based models, I know that sustained success depends on alignment, transparency and disciplined execution.
We're committed to reestablishing that foundation, beginning with immediate interventions that we expect to improve our dealers' retail performance and financial trajectory while accelerating trust across the network. As we mentioned in Q3, we've begun to act with 2 quick and meaningful changes to support our dealers.
First, we reviewed our Fuel Facility model guidelines, adjusting the scope to better balance global brand identity with celebrating local communities. Second, we made a commitment to reevaluate e-commerce. The company's e-commerce strategy has not historically delivered the intended results. It has created customer confusion and driven excessive discounting, placing unnecessary pressure on dealer economics.
We've taken corrective action in North America by shifting to a model that is intended to drive incremental dealership traffic to support motorcycle sales. In the near-term, our focus is clear: support our dealers, drive traffic to dealerships and execute against our core business, selling motorcycles. While retail sales are still meaningfully below what we would consider a healthy run rate, the early progress is encouraging.
We believe these actions are improving predictability and positioning the business for more consistent execution. Turning to inventory. On our Q3 earnings call, I was clear that inventory discipline and adapting to the realities of the current retail environment would be central to our focus. As we've dug deeper, it's become evident that the challenges are more significant than initially anticipated, and we're addressing them head on.
We are aggressively addressing inventory through targeted promotional support for touring models and disciplined quarterly planning by model, region and dealership. We believe this approach allows us to align inventory with sales trajectories, account for regional needs and proactively manage production and shipments accounting for seasonality.
The touring overhang remains pronounced and is being actively worked down through disciplined interventions designed to move the product efficiently without undermining long-term brand value. In North America, dealer inventory declined 16% relative to year-end 2024 levels. Globally, dealer inventory was down 17% over the same period, meaningfully exceeding our 10% global reduction target.
This represents solid progress against our priorities, and I'm pleased with the team's execution and delivery. Overall, retail performance through the quarter was broadly in line with internal expectations. North American retail was up year-over-year, while international retail, particularly in EMEA, was softer than we expected.
We expect the actions we are taking to assist dealers in moving through inventory to restore dealer health to have a near-term impact on our financial results. With that in mind, we view 2026 as a transition year as we reset the business and finalize our new strategy. I see a path to return to long-term earnings and free cash flow power of the business to the levels we know are possible.
I can tell you we expect margins to be under pressure in the near-term as production runs below wholesale, creating operating deleverage. These are deliberate actions that we believe are necessary to support both dealer and company profitability and ultimately rebuild the long-term earnings power of the business. As I've discussed, we are in the early stages of a reset.
We've made decisive changes and the work underway across the organization is designed to rebuild momentum in the right way and for the long term. Turning to the brand and our customer. Our leadership team is reorienting the organization around a clear priority. Our dealers are customer #1. When we enable our dealers to sell, customize and service the motorcycles our riders want, everyone wins.
I continue to spend significant time with dealers and riders, including attending a H.O.G Chapter gathering in Milan as part of my visit to Europe. The pride those members took in showing me their Harley-Davidson motorcycles was contagious. It's clear our riders view their Harley as their individual motorcycle. Individual expression matters and customization is central to that experience.
We have been too lax on our Parts and Accessories business in recent years, and that will change. This is what our riders want. It's a critical business for our dealers. It creates more opportunities for our world-class service technicians, and it is core to what Harley-Davidson has always stood for.
Going forward, our focus in this area will have 2 parts: designing and building motorcycles that invite Harley-Davidson customization and ensuring our supply chain can support that demand quickly and reliably. Brand storytelling has always been essential to what makes Harley-Davidson, Harley-Davidson. At its core, our brand celebrates riders and the communities they create.
In recent years, our work has been too serious and at times too dark. That's not who our riders are. When they ride and gather, our riders are joyful, passionate and community creators. I saw this firsthand at the 80th Anniversary celebration for a dealership outside Paris, France just a few weeks ago. Riders shared stories of journeys they've taken together, including one who proudly told me he had ridden all the way to our factory in York, Pennsylvania and was wearing his York P.A. Harley-Davidson gear while standing in Paris.
You'll soon see more optimistic, joyful brand work from us, advertising that celebrates our community in a uniquely Harley-Davidson way. Turning to product. To better align aspiration with accessibility, we are actioning more breadth and flexibility in our portfolio. That means being honest about where pricing and portfolio choices have limited our reach and making deliberate choices to widen the funnel in our core.
My own interactions with dealers and riders over the past 4 months, in addition to customer research and recent retail trends validate what our riders want, the look, sound and feel of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle coupled with the ability to customize their Harley to make it their own.
The used market continues to reinforce the power of the brand and a strong desire for customers to purchase our products, but at a price that is more aligned with today's economic realities. In fact, as we look at used auction activity, we feel enthused about recent demand trends and the positive impact they're having on used values, especially in Harley-Davidson core Softail models.
What's clear is that the portfolio actions taken over recent years have put the brand out of reach for some existing and potential riders. To win, it's clear we need to sharpen our product focus, not only creating the highest quality motorcycles that our riders want to ride, but doing so with a price in mind. We need to ensure that these are products that our dealers are excited about and able to sell at a profit level that works for them and for us.
On to the team and our org structure. Execution requires the right team and structure. We've made targeted leadership team and organizational changes to strengthen our capabilities across product, supply chain, marketing, technology and brand. We've added back new perspectives and welcomed back proven leaders with deep knowledge of Harley-Davidson's rider culture and community.
Importantly, Harley-Davidson should be a great place to work as well as a great business. A strong corporate culture isn't just good for employee morale. It's good for business. Rebuilding our culture and identity as a Milwaukee icon truly matters. My direct reports are all working from Milwaukee at our Juneau Avenue headquarters, and we will be formally reopening the office later this quarter.
By going back to the bricks at our Juneau Avenue headquarters, we are not only reigniting the cultural beat that has defined this company for over 120 years, but with these changes, we are improving decision-making speed, cross-functional collaboration and critically accountability. I'm particularly pleased with how much more agile, nimble and speedy our leadership team is becoming working shoulder to shoulder in Milwaukee.
I'm excited to get our teams back to Juneau in the coming months. It's an inspiring place to work. Lastly, I'll touch on the financial actions we are taking to reposition the business for success. We are conducting a rigorous end-to-end review of our cost base and operating expenses supported by third-party specialists. Our current corporate overhead, manufacturing capacity and overall operating expenses are built for materially higher volumes than today's demand, and we will be addressing this mismatch head on.
We will share more details in May. However, on top of previously announced targets, we anticipate at least $150 million of annual run rate savings that will impact 2027 and beyond. In Q4 2025, we renegotiated and funded the term loan with LiveWire, reducing the principal to $75 million. LiveWire is now working diligently to attract its own sources of capital to continue to finance its operations and future plans.
We remain excited about LiveWire's newest motorcycle, the Honcho, soon to be in market later this year, well aligned with the evolution of the EV motorcycle category toward smaller mini motos. Turning to HDFS. The recent transaction has delivered meaningful capital benefits. We now expect to be able to run the HDFS business with less capital than has been tied to this business historically.
With these changes, we plan to take HDFS class-leading returns and deliver an even higher ROE than we did historically. And as HDFS' asset base rebuilds over the coming years, we expect to get back to earnings levels that run below historical levels. Going forward, HDFS will operate with significantly lower capital commitments and with funding support from 2 trusted partners.
HDFS continues to be a strategic asset for Harley-Davidson and a critical enabler for our dealer network, and we will talk more about HDFS strategically during our Q1 earnings call in May. While a key priority remains returning excess capital to shareholders, we are currently evaluating the timing of our share buyback initiatives. In the near-term, we expect to be measured in our approach to share repurchases while we finalize our strategic plan that we expect to announce in May.
Before I hand it over to Jonathan, I want to reiterate that Harley-Davidson has an iconic brand, a loyal community and a dealer network unlike any other. We are taking the hard necessary steps to stabilize the business and rebuild trust, which we believe will restore our long-term earnings power. The work is underway, execution is improving, and we are committed to delivering results.
Thank you. And now I'll hand it over to Jonathan.
Thank you, Artie, and good morning to all. I plan to start on Page 4 and 5 of the presentation, where I will briefly summarize the financial results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2025. Subsequently, I will go into further detail on each business segment. As a reminder, we closed what we call the HDFS transaction in Q4 at the end of October. The HDFS transaction is a strategic partnership with KKR and PIMCO that we expect will transform Harley-Davidson Financial Services into a capital-light derisked business model.
It also changes the financial profile of HDFS starting in Q4 of '25 and affords a high degree of optionality in how we fund and run that business. As Artie cited earlier, the financial results in 2025 have come under pressure in the current challenging operating environment. We have moved immediately to make inventory management and discipline a central focus to resetting the business.
This is evident in Q4 results and will continue to be a central priority as we move forward. Let me start with consolidated financial results for the fourth quarter of 2025. Consolidated revenue in the fourth quarter was down 28%, driven by both HDMC revenue being down 10% and by HDFS revenue being down 59%.
Consolidated operating income in the fourth quarter came in at a loss of $361 million compared to an operating loss of $193 million in Q4 of 2024. This was driven by an operating loss of $260 million at HDMC and an operating loss of $82 million at HDFS. The loss at HDFS was driven by costs associated with liability management activities related to the HDFS transaction, where we retired a significant portion of HDFS debt in Q4 of '25.
The operating loss at LiveWire was $18 million, which was in line with our expectations and $8 million favorable to a year ago. In Q4, earnings per share was a loss of $2.44, which compares to a loss of $0.93 in Q4 of 2024. Turning to full year 2025, consolidated financial results on Page 5. Consolidated revenue of $4.5 billion was 14% lower compared to last year, while consolidated operating income of $387 million compares to $417 million in full year 2024.
For the full year 2025, earnings per share was $2.78 and compares to $3.44 in full year 2024. Now turning to Page 6 and HDMC retail performance. As Artie already mentioned, in Q4, North American retail sales of new motorcycles were up 5% with 15,847 motorcycles versus prior year.
In Q4, international retail sales of new motorcycles were down 10% with 9,440 motorcycles versus prior year, resulting in Q4 global retail sales of new motorcycles being down 1% at 25,287 motorcycles versus prior year. The choppiness and volatility in global retail results is a continuation of what we have observed since mid-2024 with a difficult global backdrop in big-ticket discretionary sectors.
Pricing continues to be on the top of customers' minds given the current global setup that includes inflationary pressures and interest rates that continue to run above recent historical lows. In North America, Q4 retail sales were up 5%, where U.S. retail sales were up 6% and Canada retail sales were down 7%. For the full year 2025, North America retail sales were down 13%. In the quarter, we experienced strength in our Grand American Touring product, up 6%, driven by the promotional support in the marketplace.
We also saw strength in lower-priced sport motorcycle models, up 33% as the updated pricing and marketing resonated with our dealers and customers. Within Grand American Touring, Trike was down 24% on very tight inventory availability in advance of the January 2026 new Trike launch. In EMEA, Q4 retail sales declined by 24%, driven by weakness across the region and different bike families.
EMEA continued to be adversely impacted by overall macroeconomic conditions. For the full year 2025, EMEA retail sales were down 11%. In the quarter, we experienced the most weakness in the Touring and Softail categories. In Asia-Pacific, Q4 retail sales declined by 1%, which was a significant improvement from the first half of 2025 and mostly attributed to a continued challenging environment in China, which was down meaningfully.
The Q4 retail sales included positive results in Japan and Asia emerging markets. For the full year 2025, Asia-Pacific retail sales were down 15% and the softness was most acute in China for the full year and Japan for the first half of 2025. In the quarter, we saw retail strength across all families, except for sport and lightweight motorcycles, which still had a combined inventory down nearly 30%.
In Latin America, Q4 retail sales increased by 10%, where both Brazil, our largest Latin American market and Mexico were up, while other Latin American countries were down modestly year-over-year. For the full year 2025, Latin American retail sales were up 2%, where both Brazil and Mexico were up.
For the full year 2025, global retail sales of new motorcycles were down 12% versus the prior year, where both North America and International markets turned in a similar performance. As Artie mentioned earlier, dealer inventory at the end of Q4 was down 17% versus the end of Q4 in the prior year.
This compares to our stated goal at the beginning of 2025 of reducing dealer inventory by 10%. North America dealer inventory ended down 16% and International dealer inventory ended down 20%, with the regions coming in between down 19% to down 23%. This allows Harley-Davidson dealers to start the 2026 riding season much cleaner and with an appropriate setup as we look at the coming quarters.
As discussed, we specifically focused on assisting dealers to reduce touring motorcycle inventory in North America as the market displayed its price and value sensitivity. Let me briefly touch upon incentive and promotional spend within the current environment. In Q4, we selectively provided incentive and promotional support to Harley-Davidson dealers in the form of interest rate assistance, low APR, customer cash and dealer cash credit.
As I covered last quarter and Artie mentioned earlier, dealers have more touring inventory in the channel than is desired. And while we have made progress in Q4, we still have more work to do. Based upon discussions with our dealers in December of 2025, we determined to continue with consumer promotions into Q1 of 2026 in order to work through these units, and therefore, we have taken accrual in our Q4 2025 financials.
Again, we expect this will help us get out of the gate stronger in 2026 to help drive retail performance. Now turning to Page 7 and HDMC revenue performance. In Q4, HDMC revenue decreased by 10%, coming in at $379 million, where the biggest drivers of the decline included net pricing and incentive spend and decreased wholesale volumes.
For the full year 2025, HDMC revenue decreased by 13%, coming in at $3.6 billion, where the biggest driver of the decline was decreased wholesale volumes, where we shipped around 125,000 motorcycles, down 16% from the prior year, while net pricing was largely flat on the year. Now turning to Page 8 and HDMC margin performance.
In Q4, HDMC gross profit came in at a loss of $30 million, which compares to a loss of $3 million in the prior year. Q4 is typically our lowest gross margin quarter due to seasonality and model year changeover. The year-over-year decrease was driven by the negative impacts from increased tariff costs and net pricing and incentive spend, while partially offset by the positive impacts from manufacturing costs, including leverage and favorable foreign exchange.
In Q4, operating expenses totaled $230 million, which was $19 million higher compared to prior year or 9% due to greater marketing spend with the introduction of the North America-focused marketing development fund for our dealers. In Q4, HDMC had an operating loss of $260 million, which compares to an operating loss of $214 million in the prior year period. Turning our attention to full year 2025 margins. For the full year 2025, HDMC gross margin was 24.2%, which compares to 28% in the prior year.
The decrease of 380 basis points was driven by the negative impacts from incremental tariffs in calendar year 2025, which we will cover on the next slide, negative operating leverage and lower volumes. These impacts were partially offset by the positive performance from lower supply management and logistics costs, favorable mix, foreign exchange and net pricing was largely flat for the full year.
Lastly, for the full year of 2025, operating expenses came in at $895 million, which were higher by $18 million due primarily to the marketing development fund mentioned previously. For the full year 2025, HDMC operating income was a loss of $29 million, which compares to operating income of $278 million for the full year 2024. Turning to Slide 12. In 2025, the global tariff environment was more volatile and uncertain than we had expected at the beginning of the year.
In Q4 of 2025, the cost of new or increased tariffs was $22 million. And for the full year of 2025, the cost of new or increased tariffs was $67 million. This included direct tariff exposure, Harley-Davidson importing and exporting product as well as indirect tariff exposure from suppliers. This excluded pricing mitigation actions as well as operational costs relating to new or increased tariffs.
Harley-Davidson is a business very centered in and around the United States. Three of our 4 manufacturing centers are U.S.-based and 100% of our U.S. core product is manufactured in the U.S. We also have a U.S.-centric approach to sourcing with approximately 75% of component purchasing coming from the U.S. 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.
As mentioned earlier, we closed the HDFS transaction in Q4 at the end of October. Just to restate or recap what we talked about in greater detail on the last earnings call, the HDFS transaction includes 3 key components: back book sale, sale of approximately $6 billion of existing HDFS loan receivables, forward flow agreements, the sale of future HDFS loan originations and the sale of equity interest, sale of a 9.8% common equity interest in HDFS to KKR and PIMCO.
In the fourth quarter, we retired a significant portion of HDFS debt, which resulted in some discrete costs. These discrete liability management costs were $73 million in Q4. While the full year results were record high earnings for HDFS, Q4 of '25 resulted in an operating loss of $82 million for HDFS. Let me provide some greater detail. At Harley-Davidson Financial Services, Q4 revenue came in at $106 million versus $257 million in the prior year.
The Q4 decrease was driven by lower retail and wholesale finance receivables at lower yields. The decline in retail receivables was due to the sale of the retail back book in the HDFS transaction. In Q4, interest income decreased from $224 million in Q4 of '24 to $46 million in Q4 of '25, while other income increased to $60 million due to new servicing fee streams. On the expense side, Q4 interest expense increased to $130 million from $95 million a year ago.
This line item included the $73 million of discrete liability management costs to retire HDFS indebtedness. The provision for credit losses decreased to $7 million in Q4 from $72 million a year ago on lower retail finance receivables. Last, operating expenses came in at $51 million in Q4 versus $43 million a year ago, primarily driven by increased hedging costs and employee costs. In Q4, HDFS operating income came in at a loss of $82 million.
For the full year 2025, HDFS revenue was $869 million, down 16% from prior year, primarily due to lower retail receivables and lower wholesale receivables due to the transaction. For the full year 2025, interest income decreased from $891 million to $668 million. For the full year 2025, other income increased from $148 million to $201 million in the prior year, primarily driven by a discrete gain on the sale of residual interest in securitizations, a component of the HDFS transaction and by servicing fee income.
For the full year 2025, HDFS operating income was $490 million, record high earnings for HDFS, up from $248 million in full year 2024. The increase was primarily driven by favorable provision for credit loss expense due to the HDFS transaction impact and higher other income, partially offset by lower net interest income and higher operating expenses.
With the sale of $6 billion of retail finance receivables, the provision for credit loss line item became favorable rather than a cost, reflecting the release of CECL allowance associated with the sold loans. Turning to HDFS loan origination activities. Total retail loan originations in Q4 were up 2%, coming in at $487 million in Q4.
Commercial receivables came in at $949 million at the end of the year relative to the prior year level of $1 billion, down 6%, reflecting overall lower dealer inventory levels in the channel. Total gross financing receivables were $2 billion at the end of 2025, where retail receivables were $1 billion and commercial receivables were $949 million.
This is a significant change relative to a year ago, resulting from the sale of around $6 billion of HDFS retail loan receivables as part of the HDFS transaction. For comparison purposes, gross financing receivables were $7.7 billion at the end of 2024, which includes both retail loans and commercial financing. Total HDFS loan assets fell 74% year-over-year as we shift to a capital-light business model that carried less risk.
Now turning to Slide 13 for the LiveWire segment. On a full year basis, electric motorcycle units increased by 7% and StaCyc units increased by 15%, while consolidated revenue decreased by 3% due to increased incentives associated with the Twist & Go promotion. LiveWire maintained its position as #1 retailer in the U.S. 50-plus horsepower on-road EV segment and had a second consecutive record-setting quarter for retail sales.
Consolidated operating loss decreased by 32%, driving a 45% decrease in net cash used during the year, excluding the $75 million of proceeds from the term loan with H-D. During Q4 of 2025, LiveWire consolidated revenue increased by 9%, driven by a 61% increase in electric motorcycle units and a 7% increase in StaCyc units. Consolidated operating loss decreased by 30%.
For 2026, LiveWire's focus is on the launch of its S4 Honcho products with production targeted to begin in the Spring of 2026, continued network expansion, cost savings and improvement and product innovation and development focused on profitable products. Now turning to Slide 14. Wrapping up with consolidated Harley-Davidson, Inc. financial results, we delivered $569 million of operating cash flow in full year 2025, which was down from $1.64 billion in full year 2024.
The decrease in operating cash flow was driven by lower motorcycle shipment volumes and unfavorable manufacturing and tariff costs as well as originations of retail finance receivables classified as held for sale, which are classified as operating cash outflows. There were no originations of retail finance receivables held for sale in 2024, but the net outflows related to this activity contributed to the decrease in operating cash flows.
Total cash and cash equivalents ended at $3.1 billion, which was $1.5 billion higher than a year ago. The HDFS transaction facilitated a dividend of $1 billion from HDFS to HDI in Q4, which, together with a further dividend expected to be paid in Q1, results in a total dividend that will be consistent with our original expectations. In addition, HDFS debt will be further reduced by the maturity of a EUR 700 million medium-term note in Q2.
As part of our capital allocation strategy, in Q4, we entered into an accelerated share repurchase agreement with Goldman Sachs to repurchase $200 million of shares of the company's common stock. We entered into the $200 million ASR and $160 million was delivered before 12/31 with the remainder in early 2026. For the full year 2025, we repurchased a total value of $347 million or 13.1 million shares in total, which represents around 11% of December 31, 2024, shares outstanding.
This amount includes the aforementioned ASR agreement. Now turning to Slide 16. While 2025 was a more volatile and challenging year than we had anticipated, we look to 2026 where we start the year at more appropriate dealer inventory levels and look to reset the business toward a more stable operating and financial future.
As we look to our financial outlook for 2026, we remain pleased with our leading market share position in the U.S., new model year '26 motorcycle launch, including the all-new redesigned Trike models as well as the long-haul Touring and the introduction of a more affordable lineup of motorcycles with a focus on critical price point motorcycles to help stoke demand. At HDMC, we expect retail units of 130,000 to 135,000.
We expect wholesale units of 130,000 to 135,000. As you can see, we believe that global dealer inventory levels are at appropriate total levels with some need to balance by model and family. Therefore, we expect retail and wholesale to have a largely one-to-one relationship in 2026. At the same time, we expect production units at HDMC to be lower than wholesale units shipped in 2026 as we work to prudently manage overall company inventory levels.
For 2026, we expect this will have a deleverage impact, which will pressure operating leverage when it comes to operating margins. In addition, we expect to face a greater overall cost for incremental tariffs in 2026, which are likely to be applied more uniformly over the entire calendar year, whereas 2025 experienced partial application during the year and was backloaded.
As a reminder, in full year 2025, we incurred a cost of $67 million in new or increased tariffs. And in 2026, we forecast a cost of between $75 million to $105 million of new or increased tariffs based on current tariff levels and versus the 2024 baseline. At HDMC, we expect operating income of positive $10 million to a loss of $40 million. At HDFS, we expect operating income of $45 million to $60 million.
The forecast is based on the new business model at HDFS given the HDFS transaction, where Harley-Davidson Financial Services now employs a capital-light derisked business model and has significantly changed financial earnings profile relative to before the transaction was done, particularly in the near-term.
Additionally, both retail and wholesale asset levels are lower than we previously believed and non-servicing fee income is also being viewed more cautiously. At LiveWire, LiveWire is forecasting an operating loss in the range of $70 million to $80 million. These guidance elements exclude impacts from our updated strategic plan, which we are looking forward to announcing in May, along with Q1 earnings.
And with that, we'll open it up to Q&A.
[Operator Instructions] Your first question comes from Craig Kennison with Baird.
2. Question Answer
On HDFS, just based on the message that came out of the HDFS transaction last year, I think the expectation was that HDFS operating income could be maybe half of what it used to be, so at least $100 million, granted that was just an expectation that came out of the presentation materials, but you're looking to be about half of that. Maybe help us unpack what's going on with the math behind HDFS and what the long-term profitability of that business should look like?
All right. Thank you for your question today. So obviously, from an HDFS standpoint, as we take a look at what we're guiding to, as you say, for 2026, we have a guide for the HDFS business to come in between $45 million and $60 million. As we look forward and look to kind of a standard run rate for this business, which will probably take us 2.5, 3 years to get to that point, we would view kind of at the midpoint that HDFS would be on a standardized basis, making approximately triple the midpoint.
So that's where we think the business goes long-term. As we think about some of the short-term related impacts and where is there a difference versus what we envisioned, we obviously have a cautious outlook relative to what we're looking at from an overall volume standpoint. And so we're being careful and considered there.
And then in addition with what you saw with our Q4 year-end results with dealer inventory down significantly and more than what we envisioned. Obviously, we have lower wholesale assets, too. So that pressures earnings power of that business. So hopefully, that explains what you're looking for and provides the perspective.
So do you need more retail and more wholesale stock units in order to triple that income or are there other adjustments?
Yes. No, just time for those -- time for the retail assets to kind of flow their way in. So obviously, we need multiple years of building -- kind of rebuilding the balance sheet in order to drive what we need from an income statement standpoint in that business. And then as we talk about wholesale -- wholesale levels are lower than what we envisioned with Artie's focus on how we really maintain tight and disciplined inventory with our dealers.
Your next question comes from Noah Zatzkin with KeyBanc Capital Markets.
I guess just on kind of the wholesale guidance, you kind of talked about a one-for-one dynamic. Obviously, the implication is shipment growth in '26. So I guess in terms of cadence, how should we think about that building through the year? And then on inventory levels, like I guess, is the implication that you're kind of more comfortable now with where you're sitting at the end of the year?
Sure. So why don't I start a little bit with cadence, and then maybe we'll have Artie talk through total inventory levels and provide a little bit of commentary around that. So from a cadence standpoint, as we think about wholesale shipments and the way that will look on a year-over-year basis, again, we're being what I would define as careful and considered in what we're sending into the dealer network.
So Q1 of 2026 will probably be down from a wholesale shipment perspective, down a little bit versus where we were in Q1 of prior year. We think that we'll end up kind of popping up a little bit higher in early Q2. So making sure that we have dealers who are well-positioned for when the season is starting.
So we're not asking them to carry that inventory in the January, February timeframe, but we do want them to be appropriately positioned from an inventory standpoint. So Q2 wholesale shipments will be a little bit higher than prior year. Then as we take a look at how we walk into Q3, Q3, again, probably just a little bit lower as we work through some timing elements within the portfolio and some things that occur from that standpoint.
And then as we end up ending Q4, obviously, we were pretty measured in what we shipped into the dealer network in Q4 of '25. So there's room for a pretty material change in what we're sending in, in Q4 of 2026. So certainly, as you kind of take all of those different factors, a little bit more backloaded from a shipment cadence in the second half of the year versus the first half. And even with that sort of a little bit more towards Q4. And then Artie, you just can?
Yes. No, just broadly on inventory, the focus is on supporting our dealers and selling through the touring inventory. We remain pleased with the progress there. There's still support there and will continue to be.
And we're also pleased with the '26 model year launch, a lot of enthusiasm in the market. So we'll be monitoring that closely. But in my script and in these comments, I just want to be abundantly clear, we're hyper-focused on healthy inventory levels and the focus is on the model year '25 touring right now.
Your next question comes from Robin Farley with UBS.
I wanted to ask a little bit your expectation for retail to be flat globally. Just wondering what that counts on for U.S. retail? And then also just kind of what's behind the expectation of flat, just how you're thinking -- how you're coming to that expectation? And then if I could also, by the way, just squeeze in a quick clarifying point on LiveWire.
I think previously, the expectation had been that you were limiting the kind of losses you would underwrite. And is it fair to say based on the guidance you're giving for '26 that you are willing to continue to invest or see LiveWire maybe lose more than kind of the commentary last year?
Robin, it's Artie. Thank you for the question. I'll take the LiveWire one and then Jonathan will walk through the retail forecast. On LiveWire, we extended the $75 million loan, which was originally $100 million.
So we worked through that with them, and they're actioning other sources of capital at this point in time. So in terms of funding the operating losses or so on, we've extended our commitment on the loan, and that's it. So Jonathan, you can walk through the retail piece.
Okay. Sounds good. Thanks Artie. So on the -- I think you asked about U.S. specifically from a retail standpoint. So as we flow through and take a look at it, we're obviously really, really excited about what's happening with the introduction of the new limited. So as we take a look at where we are from an overall retail sales perspective, we do envision that we have a little bit of upside in terms of '26 versus '25 from a touring standpoint for a couple of reasons.
You heard Artie talk about our focus on '25 model year sell-down and how that was focused around touring. So at retail, that actually really helps us in terms of moving through the '25 touring bikes and what we have. Stacked on top of that is the new limited and the new limited that's been hit, and we're really excited about those and the initial reception to that.
So a lot of enthusiasm from our dealer network around sold orders and what they're seeing on that front. As we moved along on the retail side, we also have the introduction of the new Trike. Again, as we look at dealer enthusiasm, customer feedback around what those look like, we're really proud of what our engineering team has done from a suspension perspective.
So as you think through handling and the way that, that motorcycle performs, some real positives, I think, in terms of how customers will feel and enjoy that motorcycle. So a little bit of enthusiasm in terms of where we sit from a Trike perspective. And then just a couple more pieces that I'll touch on quickly.
As we take a look we are being careful and considered in what CVO retail and CVO wholesale shipments ship in looks like. We do want to make sure that those bikes really are put up on the pedestal and we're being thoughtful about what we're shipping in, which obviously will challenge retail a little bit within that particular family.
And then overall, we have the full year of soft sales. So really, really excited that we have dealers who are well-positioned. We've kind of moved some price points in a way that are pretty customer-friendly. And so overall, feeling good about where that is. So those are many of the puts and takes for 2023.
Your next question comes from Tristan Thomas with BMO Capital Markets.
Can you -- the $150 million of annual run rate savings in 2027 and beyond that you guys called out, is that spread among all 3 segments? And then also, is there any way to -- anything you can provide us kind of the cadence of that next year specifically would be very helpful as you build out your models.
Tristan, I'll take that. The $150 million would not incorporate anything at LiveWire. That would just be the Motor Company and HDFS. And in terms of cadence, we would expect to realize some of those savings beginning in the back half of this year. We've not incorporated any restructuring charge in the guidance. So that would complement that. But we've been clear in saying we expect those savings to be realized on an annual basis starting in 2027.
Your next question comes from James Hardiman with Citi.
So any help you could give us sort of bridging what I think is about 4% to 8% wholesale growth, if I sort of use the wholesale guide to where you ultimately land in terms of operating income still being a modest loss on the HDMC side. Obviously, there are some tariffs in there.
It sounds like there's some deleverage as we think about sort of production versus wholesale. And then I guess I'm also curious on the ASP side or the mix side. I think what I'm hearing is that even though inventories for the year will be flat, touring will be down. So you're going to be under-shipping touring. Just curious what impact that might have on ASP and [indiscernible].
Okay. Yes. Great question. Thank you, James. Hope you're doing well. As we take a look at where we are, we certainly have a number of factors that come into play as we look at Motor Company operating income in '26 versus '25. So you're right, if you kind of look kind of where we land from a midpoint perspective, really, really close to flat. We have a number of factors that come into play. So we have a full year of tariff exposure. So that adds about a $25 million headwind year-over-year.
Again, going back to the tariff update page that we included within the deck, you can see some of the details there. Obviously, as we complete our final year of getting discipline back into the operating environment in terms of balancing out wholesale and production, that poses a little bit of a deleverage challenge.
And then we certainly have some associated supply chain impacts that we're contemplating. As you talked about, we do have a broadly one-to-one relationship between retail and wholesale, which does have an offsetting positive.
And then as we look, there are some non-motorcycle implications around P&A and A&L. So all in, as we look at where we are, if you do a midpoint comparison, just effectively sitting right on top and obviously, an improved setup for out-year performance as we work through our final issues.
Your next question comes from Brandon Rolle with Loop Capital.
I just had a question around the used versus new pricing spread. How do you feel about where that spread is right now? And obviously, with all this promotional activity, do you see that spread tightening as you kind of pull away the promotional activity or is this something that the spread going to keep expanding as maybe prices go higher, and it seems like people are digging in lower and lower into the used values for a deal. Just any comments there on the spread.
Okay. Thanks, Brandon. I'll start with a couple of numbers and then maybe Artie can provide some perspective in addition. So I think from a couple of different factors that you speak about. So as we think about where we're sitting today from a Q1 standpoint, we were forthcoming in terms of charge that we took in Q4 of '25 in order to make sure that we were positioned to clear through touring in the way that Artie has talked about.
So relative to the factor on the new side as we think about affordability and monthly payments and impacts for consumers, we recognize that we're doing -- we're putting some programs in market at the moment that are helping drive a reduction in the gap between the new and used motorcycles.
So we have some stimulus that we think is helping drive a really nice value equation for our customers. I think what's really exciting is that in addition to that, as we take a look at what we're seeing on used values, we have seen sort of stabilization of some nice improvement in used values and what we're seeing come through at both auction and retail on the used side. So I think that dynamic is also helping us from an overall consumer standpoint. So a couple of nice factors to bring that together.
Yes. And I think one of the insights we're seeing is that some of the parts of our portfolio that we've walked away from in recent years, the used values have jumped. So it's informing some of our product development work. So it's encouraging to see core equities that we've been known for a long time, really responding quite well in the used market, and it's informing some of the innovation that you're going to be seeing from us.
Your next question comes from Jamie Katz with Morningstar.
I'm hoping that you guys can talk about maybe what you envision as the potential for the Motor Company operating margin beyond '26. Like do we go back to a high single-digit rate? Do you guys see more opportunity to expand margin if maybe we can get some volume improvement to take hold and just sort of what you see as the potential for that segment over time?
Yes, Jamie, that's a great question, and it's something we're going to clearly call out in our May Investor Meeting and strategy discussion and earnings. So if you tune in then, I'll give you more detail. Obviously, we're -- we don't think the current results reflect the full potential of the company. So a lot of upside and look forward to updating you in May.
Okay. And then do you have a target for leverage metrics at the end of 2026, given that you're still paying down some debt?
Yes. I think everything from an overall capital allocation perspective, as Artie talked about in our Q1 earnings call that we do in May, we'll make sure that we walk through the strategy. Overall capital allocation, our approach to the way that we're running the business on leverage for HDMC as well as HDFS and then what we look at on a go-forward basis, we will be sure that we cover all of that then.
The one thing I'd just remind is that the EUR 700 million note that we're going to be paying off. That's the one thing that we've called out.
There are no further questions at this time. This concludes today's conference call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.
Financial data from LiveWire Group
Revenue
Revenue is the sum of all sales generated by a company, e.g. for its products or services.
Revenue (TTM) metric explainedDirect Costs
Direct costs are the costs incurred directly in connection with the manufacture of the product or service.
Gross Profit
Gross Profit indicates how much of the revenue remains in the company after deducting direct production costs. If the percentage share of sales is calculated, this is referred to as the gross margin.
Gross Profit metric explainedSelling and Administrative Expenses
Selling, general and administrative expenses (SG&A) include all expenses for marketing and sales as well as the general administration of the company.
Research and Development Expense
Research and development costs (R&D) provide information on how much the company invests in the research and development of its products. The costs are particularly interesting as a percentage of revenue and in comparison to direct competitors.
EBITDA
EBITDA (Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortization) is the company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. The EBITDA margin is calculated as a percentage of sales.
Depreciation and Amortization
Depreciation represents reductions in the value of the company's assets (e.g. due to wear and tear on machinery).
EBIT (Operating Income)
EBIT (Earnings Before Interest and Taxes) is the company's profit before interest and taxes, also known as the operating income. The EBIT Margin is calculated as a percentage of sales at
.
Net Profit
Net Profit represents the profit or loss after deduction of all costs.
Net Profit metric explainedStocksGuide Premium
| Jun '26 |
+/-
%
|
||
| Revenue | 31 31 |
31%
31%
100%
|
|
| - Direct Costs | 35 35 |
7%
7%
111%
|
|
| Gross Profit | -3.40 -3.40 |
60%
60%
-11%
|
|
| - Selling and Administrative Expenses | 69 69 |
16%
16%
220%
|
|
| - Research and Development Expense | - - |
-
-
|
|
| EBITDA | -63 -63 |
21%
21%
-201%
|
|
| - Depreciation and Amortization | 9.35 9.35 |
12%
12%
30%
|
|
| EBIT (Operating Income) EBIT | -72 -72 |
20%
20%
-231%
|
|
| Net Profit | -73 -73 |
12%
12%
-234%
|
|
In millions USD.
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LiveWire Group Stock News
Company Profile
LiveWire Group, Inc. manufactures electric vehicle (EV) motorcycles. The company was founded on December 7, 2021 and headquartered in Milwaukee, WI.
StocksGuide Premium
| Head office | United States |
| CEO | Mr. Donnez |
| Employees | 151 |
| Founded | 2021 |
| Website | www.livewire.com |


