Shares of Parent of Smith & Wesson Assault Rifle Maker Crash

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By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Published
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Shares of Parent of Smith & Wesson Assault Rifle Maker Crash

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The stock of the parent company of rifle maker Smith & Wesson has collapsed over the past year. American Outdoor Brands Corp. (NASDAQ: AOBC) gun division made the semi-automatic AR-15 assault rifle used in the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.

American Outdoor Brands shares were last seen trading at $10.90 apiece, which is down 44% over the past year. The S&P 500 index is up 24% in that time. The company has offered lackluster guidance. Worries about increased firearm buyer background checks also have hurt the shares.

Results for the quarter that ended October 31 were terrible:

Quarterly net sales were $148.4 million, in-line with the company’s guidance range, compared with $233.5 million for the second quarter last year, a decrease of 36.4%.

Gross margin for the quarter was 34.2% compared with 41.8% for the second quarter last year.

Quarterly GAAP net income was $3.2 million, or $0.06 per diluted share, compared with net income of $32.5 million, or $0.57 per diluted share, for the comparable quarter last year.

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James Debney, American Outdoor Brands president and chief executive officer, gave specific reasons:

Our results for the second quarter were within our guidance range despite challenging market conditions. Lower shipments in our Firearms business reflected a significant reduction in wholesaler and retailer orders versus the prior year, and were partially offset by higher revenue in our Outdoor Products & Accessories business. Total revenue for the quarter faced a challenging comparison to last year, when we believe strong consumer demand was driven by personal safety concerns and pre-election fears of increased firearm legislation.

A lack of gun control laws actually may undermine sales going forward as people do not need to rush to buy new weapons.

One notable thing about the American Outdoor Brands earnings is that legal gun sales are not a massive business. The company has a revenue run rate, based on the most recent quarter, of less than $700 million. Maybe gun owners are getting their guns somewhere else.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

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