Harley-Davidson Stock Has Crumbled. New CEO Jochen Zeitz Bought Up Shares.

Harley-Davidson named Jochen Zeitz president and CEO on May 7, and the next day he bought a large block of embattled shares of the maker of iconic motorcycles.

Zeitz had been acting in that capacity since Harley-Davidson (ticker: HOG) announced after the market closed on Feb. 28 that President and CEO Matthew Levatich was stepping down. That day the company also named Zeitz chairman, a title he retains. Zeitz, a former CEO of sporting-goods firm Puma, has been a Harley-Davidson director since 2007.

On May 8, Zeitz paid $2.1 million for 97,850 Harley-Davidson shares, an average per-share price of $21.26. The same day, he also converted 3.7 million share units—gleaned from his service as a director—into the equivalent amount of stock. Zeitz now owns 100,450 Harley-Davidson shares in a personal account, along with 225,403 restricted stock units and 22,612 share units, according to a form he filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Zeitz’s stock purchase is his first open-market buy since joining the company’s board in 2007. It’s also the first such purchase by a Harley-Davidson insider since 2017.

Harley-Davidson didn’t respond to a request to make Zeitz available for comment on his stock purchase.