No Recession At Ruger
I just went to Ruger’s website and there’s a recall on that gun and they’re having a hard time getting the necessary parts to repair the guns. You may have a long wait for that one.
Recalls stay out there forever. The change was made at the factory quite a while back.
http://www.gunblast.com/Ruger-LCP2.htm
The linked article implies that last year, the first production run year [Feb - Dec], Ruger churned out probably 70,000 of these little gems. So they will probably make 75,000 this year. Make hay while the sun shines! With that many coming off the line, I hope my wait isn’t too long.
Drew I just purchased the Ruger SR-9, my first pistol. I also had to take “back-orders” into consideration.
Sadly, I have not yet fired it.
Kevin
A co-worker just picked up his LCP a few days ago. I have to ask him if he’s fired it yet. I’ll relay his thoughts on it.
Posted by BlueStateSaint
03/18/2009 at 05:38 AM
Drew, Did you apply for your next purchase permits? It seems you would have to apply once a week or so just to have enough of them laying around to make legal purchases like the rest of us in the relatively freer part of the world.
Posted by StephanA
03/18/2009 at 10:43 AM
I wanted to order a Remington rifle up here in Canuck country. 3-6 month wait. Still better than Sako which is 6-12 month wait. Still on the bright side a Smith & Wesson pistol is supposed to only be a couple of weeks wait but I’m not holding my breath!
Guys, the current problem is bigger that a local shortage. Here in California, handgun sales have literally doubled. This has been a fairly steady number since Obama was sworn in. My source of information is the owner of my local gun range where they also sell a fair number of pistols, rifles and shotguns. When I visited last week, his stock was much thinner than I ever remember seeing it, only about 1/4 of usual. He says he literally can’t keep anything in stock.
This might not be good time to be choosey. Obviously, you don’t want a piece of junk but it might be a good idea to reconsider other guns in the same class.
This is not a very high volume stock. Usually under a million shares traded.
BUT ....On Feb.16th the volume was only a piddly 241,902. Days range was $5.98 - $6.50.
But something happened on Feb,23. ?? The trading volume went to 2,244,834 and the days range was $6.50 to $9.49. WOW. Hell of a day trade. In fact, if someone was following this puppy and knew something about the company they’d have bought in the day before and cashed out if they wanted the next day.However ...On March 2nd the volume went even higher and ended the day at 3,131,408 with the days range between a lo of $8.07 and $10.93.
Volume has since dropped off a lot BUT ... it looks as tho the lows might be getting higher.
I stress that word, “might.”
I couldn’t find any news but only have time for a very quick search.
Maybe something will turn up later.
This stock has been as high as $18. Wonder if it’s headed back there. But not on the low volume. Interesting. Will do a few years on this one and see.On another related note.
Newspapers here have reported on large increase in gun sales in the USA.Yes, what happened on 2/24 was the 2008 Annual Report came out ...
http://www.ruger.com/Corporate/PDF/ER-2009-02-24.pdf
And it says business was up 29%, with loads of cash on hand, and that’s after they bought back a couple million of their own stock shares. They sold off all their merchandise sitting around, and have ramped up production with even more orders in the queue.
In 2008, the Company reported net sales of $181.4 million and earnings per share of $0.43, compared to net sales of $156.5 million and earnings per share of $0.46 in 2007. A detailed analysis of the operations and results of both periods is included in the MD&A section of the Form 10-K.
Chief Executive Officer Michael O. Fifer made the following comments related to the 2008 results:
• Our firearm sales grew from $144 million in 2007 to $174 million in 2008 on the strength of new product shipments and overall robust firearms demand, particularly in the fourth quarter.
• Firearm orders received grew from $156 million in 2007 to $234 million in 2008. The order backlog at December 31, 2008 was $48 million, up from $18 million at December 31, 2007.• At December 31, 2008, our cash, cash equivalents and short-term investments totaled $28.2 million. Our pre-LIFO working capital of $90.6 million, less the LIFO reserve of $44.3 million, resulted in working capital of $46.3 million and a current ratio of 2.6 to 1.
• In 2008, the Company repurchased 1,535,000 shares of its common stock, representing 7.5% of the outstanding shares, in the open market at an average price of $6.57 per share. All of these purchases were made with cash held by the Company and no debt was incurred.I’m no expert, but that sure looks good to me!
Love that “particularly in the fourth quarter” bit. That’s the business way of saying “Thanks for electing a commie!”
Be interesting to see what institutions own any stock here.
03/18/2009 at 12:58 PM
03/19/2009 at 06:48 AM
