Pigs pushing the HOG

Yet another beat the street day for Wall Street. One of today’s beat the estimates is the HOG (Harley Davidson).

Cut and paste from the HOG report:
MILWAUKEE, April 20 /PR Newswire-First Call/ -- Harley-Davidson, Inc. reported first-quarter 2010 income from continuing operations of $68.7 million, or $0.29 per share. First quarter earnings included operating income from Financial Services of $26.7 million, marking a return to profitability for the Company's Harley-Davidson Financial Services (HDFS) subsidiary. Revenue from Motorcycles and Related Products was $1.04 billion in the first quarter.

Worldwide retail sales of new Harley-Davidson® motorcycles declined 18.2 percent in the quarter compared to the first quarter of 2009, an improvement in the rate of decline from the prior three quarters. In the U.S., retail Harley-Davidson motorcycle sales were down 24.3 percent and in international markets, retail sales declined 2.8 percent, compared to last year's first quarter.

"We are encouraged by our progress in the first quarter," said Keith Wandell, President and Chief Executive Officer of Harley-Davidson, Inc. "We are seeing directional improvement in our dealers' retail motorcycle sales as we enter the key selling season. At the same time, given the global economic uncertainty that still exists, we believe conditions will remain challenging throughout this year, and we will continue to factor that into how we manage the business.

Revenue from Harley-Davidson motorcycles during the first quarter of 2010 of $808.8 million was down 20.0 percent compared to the year-ago period. In line with guidance, the Company shipped 53,674 Harley-Davidson motorcycles to dealers and distributors worldwide during the quarter, compared to shipments of 74,670 motorcycles in the first quarter of 2009.
Link to Press Release

Grandpa's Wall Street rendition of "This Little Piggy":
HOG closing stock prices
$32.77 1/19/10 (day before earnings announcement)
$25.20 12/31/09 (stock up 30% YTD 2010)
$17.60 4/20/09 (one year ago, up $15.17 in a year or 86%)

The HOG stock yielded an 86% move in one year while revenue dropped 20% year over year in Q1. Welcome to Wall Street, let in the pigs.

As of 10:30 am CDT, the HOG printed an intraday high of $36.13 (up $3.36 or 10.3%) from yesterday's close. No need for a head scratch...

The proprietary trading desks of the "to big to fair banks" and hedge funds savour the squealing sounds when they squeeze those that are short a stock, especially one that has almost doubled in a year while revenue declined 20%.  They force existing short positions to cover, draw in other less "sophisticated investors" and when the squealing ceases, they short the stock and pile drive it into the mud.

This little piggy manipulates the market

This little piggy runs a quant fund from home

This little piggy roasted a beefy short position

This little piggy testified none of it was my fault

And all the little piggies went…

“Wee wee wee” all the way home…