Sturm, Ruger Sales Surge on a Massive Spike in Pandemic-Led Gun Buying
In a pandemic, everyone's a prepper, and some of the first things it seems everyone wanted to stock up on were firearms. Sturm, Ruger (NYSE: RGR) reported firearms sales jumped 9% in the first quarter to $123.6 million as sell-through from distributors to retailers surged 37% in the period.
Ruger doesn't sell directly to the public, only to federally-licensed firearms dealers. So there's not always a correlation between its own sales and when there is an uptick in consumer purchases as indicated by the number of background checks performed for gun buyers, as adjusted by the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF).
Yet even Ruger's business was immediately affected by the massive surge in gun purchases witnessed in mid-March after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic.
Source Fool.com
