Smith & Wesson, a US leader in firearm manufacturing and design, missed the target in the quarter ending in July. Sales plummeted, down $39.2 million from the same quarter last year to $131.9 million. People apparently aren’t buying very many long guns these days–poor sales of what Smith & Wesson calls “modern sporting rifles” drove “87% of the decline.”
James Debney, Smith & Wesson Holding Corporation President and CEO, blamed the dip on “an earlier surge in consumer buying.” The markets worry this means people have all the guns–or almost all the guns–they need. But Debney disagrees, expecting a return to a “more normalized environment” in the second half of the year. Smith & Wesson shares were down as much as 15%.
