It ' s happened again . I find myself needing to write this piece and send it to press the week before both Polaris and Harley are due to unveil their quarterly results ( Q2 ) and trying to figure if I dare to speculate on what you ' ll likely already know by the time you read this . The digital edition of AMD will have gone ' live ' a couple of days before they report , but even so , moments such as these are a high wire act for magazine folk - with no safety ! If I were a betting man ( which , stocks and shares aside , by and large I am not ), then my money would be on both manufacturers having had pretty good second quarters . In the case of Harley , I ' d expect to be seeing more evidence that CEO Jochen Zeitz ' Hardwire corporate strategy ( son of Rewire , first of its name ) continues to produce results , and in the case of Polaris , its strong position in the still burgeoning Off-Road market ( SxS / UTV especially ) should inject some excitement into the performance of its shares . Harley should also see some Wall Street bounce . At the time of writing ( Mid October ), Harley ( HOG ) is trading at around the $ 36.90 mark , having been as low as $ 32 YTD in early February and as high as $ 52 in mid-May 2021 . Polaris Industries ( PII ) is trading at the $ 130 mark , having come into 2021 at $ 95 in early January , peaking at around $ 146 in late April . Volatility in the Harley share price is something we have come to expect these past five years , but Polaris seemed to be a lot more stable . But with analysts having not liked Polaris ' broader powersports portfolio in the context of tariffs ( which is a paradox , if you ask me ), or appreciating being blindsided by long-term ( and very successful ) former CEO Scott Wine ' s decision to slide up the greasy pole a few notches to the CEO job at Case New Holland . Having guided Polaris ' turnover from the $ 2bn mark when he took over - just as the 2007-2009 financial crisis wrecked both Polaris ' and Harley ' s balance sheets and share prices - to $ 9bn at the time of his decision to move on , CNH marked a considerable leap up that pole . CNH is a $ 28bn turnover conglomerate , though is itself only one wheel on the juggernaut that is Fiat Chrysler , which in turn is just one part of the Agnelli family ' s Fiat Industrial Group . In terms of Jochen Zeitz , his Puma sneakers to major fashion label and luxury goods brand background saw his greasy pole performance play out in Germany ( at Puma ) and then at parent company Kering in France ( owner of Puma , Gucci , Yves Saint Laurent etc ). So , Scott Wine has taken his formative experience in the powersports industry to try to apply it to altogether bigger boys ( and girls ) toys . Zeitz has gone from the large to the smaller in turnover terms - from the overpriced luxury goods market to the urm , well - you know what I ' m saying ! Even though it is still only 18 months or so since Zeitz stepped into the CEO chair at Harley , he had been a non-executive director since 2007 and , as a very wealthy man in his own right , he has very quickly been able to bring some of his experience
Hubris or Sage ?
in expensive products and lifestyle brands to Harley . The maintenance of MSRP , the restoration of scarcity and , above all , the rebuilding of brand desirability have his career hallmarks stamped all over his Rewire / Hardwire process . Sooner or later , analysts will like enough of what they are seeing to reboot Harley ' s share price . Then , there is no reason why Harley should not enter a new era of convincingly strong Wall Street performance . It may take some years before Harley is able to restore the S & P 500 upper quartile status that Zeitz ' predecessor Matt Levatich was so concerned to try to protect . In the meantime , dividends should continue to remain strong , and , for now at least , the spectre of hostile take-over that had haunted Harley for much of the past decade does seem to have receded ( how ' s that for a hostage to fortune !). The Rewire / Hardwire process has seen some brutal housekeeping implemented at Harley - though nothing compared to the severe haircut that Keith Wandell inflicted back in 2009 . The consensus is that while that worked - adios Buell and MV Agusta - it had long-term impact . The trimming of those other brands and product lines , and the thousand other cuts , did protect the balance sheet , but also resulted in the death of ambition ; it bought the company time , but it was not used well . In Zeitz ' case though , there have been no big slices of low hanging fruit to be cut away . Instead , his approach has been more subtly strategic . Despite the effects on the dealer network , the mid-stream new model development course changes and the terminated careers , it is one that has made sense . The Hardwire strategy is allowing Harley to bring a renewed sense of brand status and integrity along for the ride , and , so far , the model range buttons that his management team have pushed , and the management structure rebuild itself , already has started to yield results . Personally , I particularly like what Harley has done with its LiveWire conundrum , and with Serial 1 , even if Stacyc appears vulnerable . As regular readers will know , I had long been an advocate of taking the Bar ' n Shield back to its real roots , indeed to the real roots of ' American Motorcycling ' in general and getting jiggy in the ADV space , and bowing out of so-called entry level pricing , but making sure that the new products ( Sportster 1200 Custom , LiveWire One and the Pan America ) had profitable but still competitive MRSPs is a great deal more logical than anything that was in the ' More Roads to Oblivion ' plan . Indeed , sustaining a better and more profitable pricing and ROI profile , in reasonable volume opportunity developed markets , and doing so while also Chasing Down the Dragon in China ( without compromising either brand values or American and European price-points ), is ' all good ' as far as I can tell .
Robin Bradley
Co-owner / Editor-in-Chief robin @ dealer-world . com