Is Hardley Davidson losing its market share?

Cult-bike maker Harley Davidson appears to be losing the market share due to poor sales, said an analyst in a report.

The shares of Harley Davidson Inc. on Wednesday plunged almost 7.5% to $46.10 in New York and finally closed down as low as 9.5%, biggest intraday slide since October 20, said a Bloomberg report.

The shares tumbled soon after an analyst John Tomlinson of ITG Investment Research predicted that the sales of the company may fall up to 7% to 32,995 bikes in US, in the first quarter.

"Our research indicates retail trends were weak in March for Harley-Davidson. After relatively stable market share in the first two months of the quarter, Harley-Davidson appeared to lose market share at an accelerated pace Y/Y in March, resulting in an overall market share decline in the first quarter", Tomlinson said.

According to USA Today, the company's spokesperson refused to comment on the sales of the motorcycles before April 19, when the company is scheduled to announce the quarterly result.

Lastly, Tomlinson also mentioned that the revenue will be around $1.2-$1.22 billion, a decrease of upto 4.3% as compared to same quarter last year.

In the domestic market, last month in March, the company had announced the increase in prices on select models sold in India by Rs 30,000 to offset the impact of foreign exchange rate fluctuation.

The price increase will be applicable on Street 750, Sportster family and Softail range of bikes in India, Harley-Davidson India said in a statement.

The new prices came into effect from April 1.