Photograph by Whitney Curtis/Getty Images
A display of shotguns during the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in St. Louis, Missouri.
Just another measure of a nation coming together in harmony following a divisive election:
Smith & Wesson Holding Corp. (SWHC) climbed the most in two months to lead a rally among firearms manufacturers as traders speculated that President Barack Obama’s re-election will spur gun sales, Bloomberg’s Tim Catts reports.
Smith & Wesson, a maker of pistols and rifles, jumped 7.8 percent to $10.20 at 11:51 a.m. in New York following an 11 percent gain that was the biggest in intraday trading since Sept. 7. Sturm Ruger & Co. (RGR) rose 5.5 percent to $47.10.
“While we maintain our view that these political sales do not represent the entirety of recent firearms sales growth, we expect that with President Obama’s re-election these sales could continue well into his second term,” Mike Greene, an analyst at New York-based Benchmark, wrote in a note to clients today.
Smith & Wesson, based in Springfield, Massachusetts, more than doubled this year through yesterday, while Southport, Connecticut-based Sturm Ruger gained 35 percent. That compared with an 11 percent gain for the Russell 2000 index. Greene has buy ratings on both stocks.
See the full Smith & Wesson report at Bloomberg.com.
