1) Review the instructor's feedback provided to you in Assignments 1-8.2) Edit and update Assignments 1-8 using the feedback provided to you by the instructor.3) Using a Word document, set up the writ

Financial Performance

Assignments 6

BUS100

Kurstie Janinda

• Briefly describe how you will evaluate this company’s performance

To evaluate the company’s performance, I can use financial analysis reports, balance reports, Reconciliation of GAAP Amounts to Non-GAAP Amounts, Condensed Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows, etc. and compare them to the previous year (H-D, Inc., 2019). This will help me see if the company has made any improvements and if they are headed in the right direction. I can also look at other financial indicators like stocks and compare the market performance (i.e. sales rate/revenue) to that of other competing motorcycle companies. Lastly, I can consider product quality or returns, customer and employee satisfaction to help to see if the company is succeeding or failing (Markgraf, 2019).

• How is the company doing financially? How do you know?

Harley-Davidson generated $1.21 billion of cash from operating activities in 2018 compared to $1.01 billion in 2017. The company paid a cash dividend of $0.37 per share for the fourth quarter, and $1.48 per share on a full-year basis. Harley-Davidson was able to repurchase 4.9 million shares of its common stock during the fourth quarter for $194.2 million. Financial Services finished the year with record earnings of $291.2 million, up 5.8 percent from 2017 (H-D, Inc., 2019).

On a full-year basis, the U.S. 601+cc industry was down 8.7 percent and Harley-Davidson held market share of 49.7 percent. Harley-Davidson's full-year Europe market share was up 0.5 percentage points to 10.3 percent.

Full-year 2018 net income was $531.5 million on consolidated revenue of $5.72 billion versus net income of $521.8 million on consolidated revenue of $5.65 billion in 2017.Fourth quarter 2018 net income was $0.5 million on consolidated revenue of $1.15 billion versus net income of $8.3 million on consolidated revenue of $1.23 billion in 2017. By the end of 2018 cash and marketable securities were $1.21 billion, compared to $687.5 million in 2017 (H-D, Inc., 2019). With all of these improvements from 2018 I would say the company is doing better financially when comparing their numbers from 2017.

• Which financial statement do you think provides the best information for investors?

While there are a few important forms that should be provided for investors, I feel that the most important one would be the retained earnings statement. The changes in the common equity account reflected by the retained earnings statement reflects the change in value of the stockholder’s investment in the company during the accounting period (Penman, 2020).

References

Davidson Announces Fourth Quarter, Full-Year 2018 Results: Harley-Davidson USA. (2019, January 29). Retrieved July 06, 2020, from http://investor.harley-davidson.com/news-releases/news-release-details/harley-davidson-announces-fourth-quarter-full-year-2018-results

Markgraf, B. (2019, March 08). How to Evaluate a Company's Performance. Retrieved July 05, 2020, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/evaluate-companys-performance-67095.html

PENMAN, S. H. (2020). Financial statement analysis and security valuation. MCGRAW-HILL.