Should You Invest in Harley Davidson?

PHOTO CREDIT: Harley Davidson

OVERVIEW

Harley Davidson Incorporation is a company based in the United States. The company designs, manufactures, and sells motorcycles around the world. In addition to this, the company offers maintenance, financial, and other ancillary services related to its core businesses. The company was founded in 1903.

Why You Should?

1. Harley Davidson is a decent reopening play in an investor’s portfolio. The company saw a drop in sales as consumers had less money to purchase vehicles like motorcycles and did not demand new vehicles as they stayed indoors. However, once the pandemic is over, the company will see growth return once again.
2. Harley Davidson is starting to develop and build a strong portfolio of electric bikes like the electric Live Wire bike. As Harley Davidson further develops and adds more eco-friendly and electric bikes, it will benefit the company’s future growth and will also benefit investors in the company.
3. Harley Davidson has an extremely strong brand recognition around the world. The company is known for its extremely powerful and unique bikes, something that has helped develop the company into one of the premier names in the motorcycle industry. This strong brand recognition will benefit the company and its investors in the future.

Why You Should Not?

1. The company faces tough competition in the motorcycle and vehicle industry. Some of these competitors include Ducati, Indian Motorcycle, Ford, General Motors, Tesla, and many others. This competition might hurt the company and its investors.
2. Motorcycles (especially premium ones) are an extremely niche vehicle and continues to remain a small percentage of the global transportation industry. Not everyone wants a motorcycle, and Harley Davidson’s brand does not seem to be popular amongst younger consumers either. This will hurt the company and its investors in the future.
3. Historically speaking, Harley Davidson has seen an extremely lackluster performance. This is due in part because of the reasons mentioned above. For example, the stock has been falling over the past 5 years due to low demand for its bikes and other tariffs, and global trade issues. This will hurt the company and its investors who are looking for strong returns.
4. The COVID-19 pandemic has caused many supply chain issues for the company. The company has seen a shortage of critical parts, like semiconductor chips and other transportation and logistics services, due to massive shortages. This has caused the company to see negative impacts on its results. This will continue to hurt the company and its investors until conditions normalize

MY OPINION

I think that there are better investment options other than Harley Davidson due to tough competition, motorcycles becoming a niche vehicle, historical lackluster performance, as well as supply chain issues. However, the company is still a decent reopening play, has good brand recognition, and also might have a strong future in the electric bike industry.