The number of motorcycle brands reporting financial results has increased to include Kawasaki->ke299, which recently announced its fiscal results for the third quarter of the 2014 to 2015 fiscal year.

According to its own numbers, the bike maker’s Motorcycle and Engine division reported selling 397,000 units through the first three quarters of the fiscal year. At face value, the number might scream success for Kasawaki, but the truth is, the sold units represent a decrease of 1.5 percent from its year-on-year on numbers. In the same period a year ago, Kawasaki sold close to 403,000 units . The slip in sales volume showed itself in the company’s net sales, which reflected the slight dip by coming in lower than expected over three quarters at around $1.8 billion.

If that’s not enough, the Japanese bookmaker also saw its operating income slip from its old perch to somewhere around $35 million during the reported period.

The company’s sales numbers in the third quarter of the 2014-2015 fiscal year can be pointed to a slow down in sales in some of the brand’s key markets, including Thailand and Latin America. The slower-than-usual sales numbers in those two markets actually wiped out the gains made in other markets like Indonesia and Europe.

Moving forward, Kawasaki is confident that it can report improved results in its next financial report. The company has made no bones about its belief that that it could still reach close to $2.81 billion in net sales this year, which would mean that it’s going to need to have quite a healthy selling fourth quarter for that to happen.

Click past the jump to read more about Kawasaki's 3Q of 21014-2015 results.

Why it matters

It's not unusual for a company to come out and report strong sales numbers for 2014. Heck, I've ran down a list of them over the past few weeks. What's a little surprising is that Kawasaki isn't one of them, or at least not one of them with recent sales success.

That's not to say that Kawasaki's sales numbers are drying up. Far from it actually. At its current rate, Kawasaki's sales numbers are still considered as one of the best in the world, a cache it earned for expanding its own business globally and offering customers a wide variety of models.

The bike maker did have its reasons for the drop in sales numbers, and yes, most of them are pretty valid. But don't expect them to last, either. If there's one thing I've come to know with brands like Kawasaki, it's that there's really no such thing as a stepback for the company. The only pertinent question is how much growth it has in a given year. Sometimes, it has a lot. Sometimes, it has a little. There are times, like last year, that sales went down. But Kawasaki is still Kawasaki for a reason.

As long as it continues to sell bikes, there's no reason for anybody to lose any faith in the company, even if its sales numbers have "dipped" compared to last years.