Smith & Wesson ends FY2016 with 31% increase in sales

Ending its fiscal year and first full year with an accessory wing, Smith & Wesson reported a 31 percent increase in annual sales, which pushed total revenue to $722.9 million.

The Massachusetts-based gun maker’s current long-term strategy was credited for “delivering financial and operational results that set a number of new company records,” said James Debney, Smith & Wesson’s president and chief executive officer, in a statement with the results.

According to filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, total annual sales comprised of $657.6 million from firearms and $65.3 million from accessories. The company netted $94 million in profit, up by $44.2 million from the year before.

Annual revenue for accessories grew by nearly 20 percent. Smith & Wesson told investors in 2014 — when the company acquired accessory maker Battenfeld Technologies — the addition would bring in an estimated $50 million annually. The gun maker beat out that expectation by $15.3 million.

“In our first full year of accessories revenue, we expanded our product portfolio organically as well as through a targeted acquisition, delivering double-digit top line revenue growth,” Debney said, adding senior managers are expecting a strong balance sheet in FY2017.

Closing out the fourth quarter, net sales were $221.1 million, an increase of 22.2 percent over the fourth quarter last year. Of which, firearms made up $203.7 million and accessories $17.5 million.

In April, Smith & Wesson was divided into three divisions: firearms, accessories and manufacturing services, which acts in support of the other two. The company’s plan is to enter the much more lucrative outdoor goods markets in addition to guns.

Competing gun maker Sturm, Ruger & Company closed out 2015’s fiscal year in February raking in $551.1 million in sales. For its first quarter, ending last month, Ruger earned a total of $36.1 million in sales.