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It’s been a week of surprises in the financial markets where guns are concerned. First there was Dick’s Sporting Goods stock, which fell about 10% due to an unexpected drop in same-store sales. The pro-gun control retailer attributed its poor results to the post-Parkland moves they made, raising the minimum age to buy a gun and discontinuing scary black rifle sales in their Dick’s and Field & Stream stores.

But that doesn’t mean that Americans have lost their taste for firearms and all things ballistic. To the contrary . . .

Smith & Wesson parent American Outdoor Brands stunned Wall Street on Friday with unexpectedly strong quarterly results and a brighter financial outlook, sending its stock soaring 44 percent.

The Springfield, Mass., company said profits surged as it cut costs and inventory, even as demand for new gun models goosed sales. The news, which likewise gave a 7.3 percent boost to shares of archrival Sturm Ruger & Co., raised investor hopes that the industry is finally digging itself out of a two-year slump — and piles of unsold guns.

That’s really strange, because we saw a brace of new media reports this week — apropos of nothing — celebrating talking about the “Trump slump” and the allegedly tough time gun makers are still having almost two years after the presidential election. (See examples here, here, here and here.)

But then along comes Smith & Wesson and bursts the bad new bubble.

…Chief Executive James Debney cited “consumer preference for our new products.”

Those include Smith & Wesson’s easy-to-shoot M&P 380 Shield EZ automatic pistol, its versatile SW22 Victory semi-automatic pistol and a relaunched revolver called Model 19 that was first produced by the company in 1955. Long-range rifles are moving briskly, the company said.

No surprise there. Check out our reviews of the M&P 380 Shield EZ and SW22 Victory to see why those guns are doing so well for Smith.

American Outdoor swung to a $7.6 million profit, versus a loss of $2.2 million, as revenue jumped 7.6 percent, to $138.8 million, beating expectations of $134.5 million. The company hiked its outlook for sales and profits for the rest of 2018.

Nationwide background checks for gun purchases, an indicator of gun sales, totaled 1.84 million in July, are up 5.3 percent from a year ago, but down 16.5 percent from July 2016, according to the FBI.

Have a safe and happy holiday weekend.

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20 COMMENTS

  1. Probably all the jerks like me buying M&P sport 2s just cuz of Parkland. Although I got a Pony instead because I am a brand snob…but the thought was there

  2. I think the “slump” was mostly AR15’s, it seems conceal carry oriented pistols and “precision” style rifles havs remained strong sellers.

    • aka the ones a Clintonocracy would have come for first.

      It’ll also be interesting to see the ammo makers’ quarterlies.

  3. Maybe S&Ws selling was a result of pricing? Just like any other product, when the price is higher than other offerings of similar quality products, the higher priced do not sell well.
    Business 101.

  4. I wish I knew on Thursday about their financial performance for the quarter, lol. Stock prices up 44%!!! Wowzer.

  5. Meanwhile, our wanna l-be overlords wrangle votes at the ballot box so they can try to ban stuff people vote for with their feet, money and time.

    This, they call “democracy.”

  6. Wellll…my next gat will mebbe be a S&W Sport II. Pawnshop used but unfired. The retail dealer’s around here(NE ILL and NW Indiana) have raised prices on basic AR’s. A ludicrous $700 at Cabela’s for the S 2. No discount pricing(or even layaway)…

  7. This is the time to buy. Don’t wait for the next panic. Don’t put it off because there will always be next year. Buy now while prices are low. There will be another panic eventually.

    • Dear S&W. Please move to a Free state. The M&P .38 Special revolvers are fantastic. Smooth DAO, no Clinton hole, +P rated, lightweight and pleanty accurate for their intended useage. Please move out of Taxachusetts and deny them any part of your continued success. Progressives and SJWs are like any other abusers. If they hurt you once and get away with it they’ll keep at it. Don’t ignore the illegal and unconstitutional behavior of elected officials and lifetime bureaucrats, they are committed to taking everyones firearms. Why help finance them with your hard earned profits? They can be stopped if we damage their ability to use tax payer money to finance their agenda. Let’s drain the swamp at the State level. 30

  8. Smith & Wesson has done a lot of good things since dumping its horrid Smith & Wesson Security business. Battenfeld (including Caldwell, Tipton and Shrade), Crimson Trace, Gemini suppressors and others were great acquisitions and IIRC all were cash deals.

    S&W has a lot of my money. I like what they’ve done with it.

  9. I only own two S&W firearms and don’t need to add one to my collection of 23 weapons. That said, I’m going to buy a Performance Center MODEL 629 tomorrow to support S&W and to denounce Mr. Hoggface and his poorly thought out extortion scheme.

    • There is always an alternative to just not buying a NEW ‘S&W’/AOBC revolver.

      S&W ((the great company that once occupied the building where AOBC now holds sway–akin to Rhodesia and Zimbabwe in my view) has built MILLIONS of fine revolvers since 1857, and a goodly number are still out there. One can still buy NIB, or gently used, high-quality forged-and-machined-steel revolvers, without the Soulless Hole, for not that much more than a new AOBC Safety Special that comes complete with an autographed bikini photo of Hillary and a tiny little key with which to turn it on and off. It just takes more shopping.

      Buying a good used or NIB REAL S&W revolver instead of an AOBC one also sends a small monetary and political message to American Outdoor Brands Corp.: “We don’t WANT your Hillary Holes and Tiny Little Keys! A POX upon your two-piece barrels and MIM internals! Give me quality, or give me. . . PRE-OWNED!”

      Now. . . would I buy a 69, or even a ‘New 19,’ if there was no ‘hole’? Could I overlook the MIM and Daisy-design barrel? Yep. But I won’t–as long as that ‘hole’ is there, S&W/AOBC is dead to me..

      /end of rant.

  10. I agree John in AK! I could NOT have said it better!! None of that crap for me either. If they can’t make them like they used to they can keep them!! Since 1857, and all of a sudden they think they have to put safeties on revolvers. A revolver is inherently one of the safest firearms ever designed and S&W has to go screw with it by cheapening up its production with crap internal parts, cludged-together 2-part barrels and oh yes, the lovely Hillary Hole.

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