Smith & Wesson, one of America’s most prominent firearms companies, made beaucoup bucks in 2020. The record-breaking number of Americans who bought firearms last year played a role in setting record numbers of sales for Smith & Wesson.
According to Stephen Gutowski of The Reload, Smith and Wesson’s net sales exceeded $1.1 billion in 2020. This represented a 100% increase from 2019.
“Our manufacturing logistics teams produced and shipped nearly 2.5 million units last fiscal year, representing a 70 percent increase year on year,” CEO Mark Smith recounted during Smith & Wesson’s earnings call on June 17, 2021. “While during the same timeframe, the U.S. firearms market as measured by NICS grew by 42 percent.”
The meteoric rise in sales allowed Smith & Wesson to pay off its debt and also pay out a dividend.
“During fiscal 2021, we invested in our business and our people, we repaid all of our bank debt, we repurchased over 10% of our outstanding common stock, and we began paying our stockholders a quarterly dividend for the first time in company history,” explained Deana McPherson, Smith & Wesson’s CFO, in a statement. “Our Board has authorized a new $50 million share repurchase program as well as a 60% increase in our quarterly dividend to 8 cents per share.”
2020 was a gun sales year for the ages. The Wuhan virus pandemic and the questionable policing and related crime policies motivated people to get strapped. Many of these people were first-time buyers. The unprecedented number of people buying firearms beat all expectations the firearms industry had, thus straining many companies’ ability to produce new firearms and ammunition. In its earnings call, Smith & Wesson revealed that it has one week’s worth of supply in distributor inventory.
Gutowski observed that Smith & Wesson isn’t the only company experiencing booming firearms sales. In a recent report, Ruger revealed that it had a roughly 50% increase in net sales in the first quarter of 2021. Similarly, leading ammo manufacturers Olin Company and Vista Outdoor have witnessed a fourfold rise in their stock prices over the last year.
Gutowski provided an overview of the fantastic numbers that Smith & Wesson hit in the last year:
Smith & Wesson reported net sales jumped in their latest quarter. Coming in at $322.9 million, the quarterly sales jumped 67.3 percent over the same quarter from the previous year. The spike comes after the company boosted production by 60 percent and hired nearly 300 new employees. Smith said the production bump sets the company up for continued growth moving forward.
These developments have to make Gun Control Inc. furious. While it’s easy to complain about the present gun control status quo, Second Amendment proponents can take a bit of solace in knowing that American gun culture is still robust. In other words, the gun control crowd will not have an easy time in advancing civilian disarmament schemes.
To make the most of this situation, it would be beneficial for Second Amendment advocates to reach out to first-time gun buyers and educate them on the benefit of the right to self-defense. This is one base of the American populace that’s worth tapping into and could be crucial in creating a robust pro-gun coalition that will put gun rights over the top throughout America.
