American Outdoor Brands, parent of Springfield gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson, faces sales decline, earnings announcement

SPRINGFIELD — Faced with declining consumer demand for guns and increasing calls for tighter gun restrictions, the parent company of Smith & Wesson will release its annual earnings report Wednesday. Guns are 85 percent of sales at Springfield-based American Outdoor Brands — the parent company of Smith & Wesson. Firearm sales were down 60 percent in the company’s third quarter and are down 46 percent over the first three quarters of the company’s fiscal year, according to American Outdoor Brands’ most recent annual report to investors (available here as a PDF). Company executives will update those numbers with results from its fiscal year, which ended April 30, during an announcement on its investors website. American Outdoor Brands has 1,600 employees at its Springfield plant. Analysts at Zacks Equity Research predict American Outdoor Brands’ fourth-quarter earnings of 11 cents a share, a decline of 80.7 percent, and revenues of $182.9 million, a decrease of 20.2 percent year over year. On Tuesday, American Outdoor Brands stock ( AOBC on Nasdaq) was selling at $12.95 a share, down from the $23.70 a share the stock sold for a year ago. AOBC sold $773 million worth of handguns and rifles in fiscal 2017, up from $652 million in FY 2016 and $531.2 million in fiscal 2015. In the third quarter of this year, net sales of all Smith & Wesson products including firearms and other goods were $157.4 million, compared with $233.5 million for the third quarter last year, a decrease of 32.6 […]

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