Born To Ride News

The motorcycle maker this morning said net income plunged 91% to $19.8 million, or 8 cents per share, from $222.8 million, or 95 cents per share, in the same period last year. Revenue fell 27% to $1.15 billion.

Analysts were looking for earnings of 24 cents per share on revenue of 1.15 billion.

The company said this morning that it plans to cut an additional 700 hourly and 300 salaried employees as it tries to deal with tanking demand for its high-end bikes — a Harley can cost $20,000 or more. Earlier this year, Harley said it planned to cut between 1,400 and 1,500 hourly positions and about 300 salaried positions.

Global retail-unit sales of new Harley-Davidson motorcycles fell 30% in the second quarter. The company also lowered its 2009 expectations for shipments; it now plans to ship 212,000 to 228,000 motorcycles to dealers and distributors worldwide this year, which is a 25% to 30% drop from the number shipped in 2008.

Shares of Harley-Davidson were down 47 cents, or 2.7%, to $17.02 this morning.

Marriott International (MAR) also had a rough second quarter, as people stayed home.

The hotel operator this morning said net income tumbled 76% to $37 million, or 10 cents per share, from $157 million, or 42 cents per share, a year ago. Excluding charges, Marriott said it would have earned 23 cents per share, which was 2 cents better than expectations.

Revenue fell 20% to $2.56 billion, and revenue per available room (RevPAR), a closely watched metric for the hotel industry, fell 26.1%.

Marriott expects third-quarter earnings to be between 9 cents and 14 cents per share, with hotel RevPAR expected to fall by 20% to 23% in North America and by 22% to 24% everywhere else. For the full year, the hotel company said it is looking for earnings of 76 cents to 86 cents per share. Wall Street’s forecast is for 91 cents per share.