What Happened: Shares of american firearms manufacturer Smith & Wesson (NASDAQ:SWBI) jumped 29.6% in the afternoon session after the company reported fourth-quarter results that blew past analysts' operating margin and EPS expectations. Its revenue also outperformed Wall Street's estimates. Management noted it "gained market share as our shipments outpaced the overall firearm market" and that it "expects the firearm market to experience healthy demand through the 2024 election cycle". For context, firearm sales typically rise in each election year as consumers fear potential policy changes and stockpile goods.
Smith & Wesson's Board also authorized a $0.12 per share quarterly dividend that will be paid on April 4, 2024 to stockholders of record on March 21, 2024. This dividend represents a ~3.5% annual yield based on today's stock price.
Zooming out, this was a fantastic quarter that should have shareholders cheering.
Is now the time to buy Smith & Wesson? Find out by reading the original article on StockStory.
What is the market telling us: Smith & Wesson's shares are somewhat volatile and over the last year have had 5 moves greater than 5%. But moves this big are very rare even for Smith & Wesson and that is indicating to us that this news had a significant impact on the market's perception of the business.
Smith & Wesson is up 29.1% since the beginning of the year. Investors who bought $1,000 worth of Smith & Wesson's shares 5 years ago would now be looking at an investment worth $1,744.