Smith & Wesson Posts Insane Earnings, Revenues Skyrocket

The past couple of years have been alright for famed gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson but 2012 has been exceptionally kind.

"Gross profit for the first quarter was $51.3 million, or 37.7% of net sales, compared with gross profit of $26.5 million, or 28.9% of net sales, for the comparable quarter last year [emphasis added]," the company said in its press release.

And it doesn’t end there.

"The company earned 27 cents vs. expectations of 18 cents," Business Insider’s Joe Weisenthal writes. "Revenue was $136 million vs. estimates of just over $128.7 million."

The company also expects earnings of 19 to 21 cents in the next quarter, which, as Weisenthal notes, is way above earlier estimates of 13 cents.

But let’s try to visualize this information:

And what about the company's revenues?

"[W]hen the final bubble does pop (and here we make the wild assumption that no intelligent extraterrestrial life will be found to bail out the central banks in time), at least everyone will be locked and loaded," Zero Hedge notes.

Here are some key takeaways from the company’s most recent investor presentation [via Zero Hedge]:

• Record-level quarterly sales growth from continuing ops of $136.0M, +48.3% Y/Y
• Record-level quarterly income from continuing ops of $18.9M, or $0.28 per diluted share
• Raised Full Year Fiscal 2013 Financial Guidance
• Exceeded high end of upwardly revised sales guidance
• Backlog of $392.4M versus $148.8 one year ago

Simply put, and as the above chart clearly demonstrates, demand for the company’s products has grown exponentially over the past two years and it doesn't look like it will slow down any time soon.

"Smith & Wesson rose $1.07, or 12 percent, to $10.07 on surging gun sales and a raised profit forecast," the Associated Press reported Friday. "The gun company said it expects earnings for the quarter ending October to climb to as much as twice what analysts had expected."

Check out the investor presentation here:

Swhc Sept 2012 Ir Pres

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