April 25 (Reuters) - Harley-Davidson Inc reported a sharply higher profit on Thursday, in line with expectations, and kept its full-year shipment forecast unchanged.
The Milwaukee-based company posted a first-quarter profit of $224.1 million, or 99 cents a share, up from $172.0 million, or 74 cents a share a year before.
Sales rose 9.8 percent to $1.57 billion, the company said.
Analysts, on average, had expected Harley-Davidson to report a profit of 99 cents a share on sales on $1.46 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.