Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. Q4 FY2026 Earnings Call

Good day, everyone, and welcome to the Smith & Wesson Brands fourth quarter and full fiscal 2026 financial results conference call. This call is being recorded, and at this time, I would like to turn the call over to Kevin Maxwell, Smith & Wesson's general counsel, who will give us some information about today's call.

Thank you, and good afternoon. Our comments today may contain four looking statements. Our use of the words anticipate, project, estimate, expect, intend, believe, and other similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements may also include statements on topics such as our product development, strategies, market share, demand, consumer preferences, inventory conditions for our products, growth opportunities and trends, and industry conditions in general. Forward-looking statements represent our current judgment about the future and are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by our statements today. These risks and uncertainties are described in our SEC filings, which are available on our website, along with a replay of today's call. We have no obligation to update forward-looking statements. We reference certain non-GAAP financial results. Reconciliations of GAAP financial measures to non-GAAP financial measures can be found in our SEC filings and in today's earnings press release, each of which is available on our website. Also, when we reference EPS, we are always referencing fully diluted EPS, and any reference to EBITDA is to adjusted EBITDA. I would like to remind you that when we discuss NICS results, we are referring to Adjusted NICS, a metric published by the National Shooting Sports Foundation based on FBI NICS data. Adjusted NICS removes those background checks conducted for purposes other than firearms purchases. Adjusted NICS is generally considered the best available proxy for consumer firearms demand at the retail counter. because we transfer farms only to law enforcement agencies and federally licensed distributors and retailers and not to end consumers NICS generally does not directly correlate to our shipment or market share in any given time period we believe mostly due to inventory levels in the channel joining us on today's call are Mark Smith our president and CEO and Dean McPherson our CFO with that I will turn the call over tomorrow thank you Kevin and thanks

everyone for joining us today. Our excellent fourth quarter and full year fiscal 2026 results showcase our team's remarkable execution on our strategic priorities and the steering power of our iconic brand. Fueled by strong consumer demand for our products and our ability to leverage our flexible manufacturing operations, we are sustaining our market share growth momentum, and our Q4 performance surpassed our expectations on every key metric. Net sales increased nearly 27% year-over-year. Adjusted EBITDAs increased 31.7%, and adjusted EPS was up nearly 77%. We also delivered another strong quarter of cash generation, cash from operations increasing by nearly $34 million compared to last year. These numbers are a direct result of the team's focus on our clearly defined strategy of growing market share through innovation and operational execution. For the full fiscal year, our top line revenue was up over 10% year-over-year, adjusted EPS increased more than 25%, and adjusted EBITDA was up 7%. We also continued to fortify our balance sheet, generating over $114 million in cash from operations, retiring $60 million in debt on our credit facility, and closing the year with just $20 million in debt versus $80 million at the end of fiscal 2025. Throughout the past year, we have been highlighting the tremendous results that we've been achieving in market share growth, and this momentum certainly continued in our fourth quarter. On the handgun side, our unit shipments into the sporting good channel surged 23% versus a NICS increase of only 1.1%, while channel inventory remained flat, indicating strong consumer demand for our products is driving excellent sell-through and substantial market share capture at the retail counter. We continue to lead the concealed carry market with our Bodyguard 2.0 and Shield Pistol lines. And with the introduction of our newest M&P pistols, from the HG Steel to Competitor to the Carry Comp Series, we are now rounding out the innovation across the categories within the semi-auto pistol market, which is only accelerating our market share growth. Revolver side, we are the market leader and have been for years. But true to our disciplined focus on the long term, the team has been hard at work on renewing and revitalizing the line to maintain our leadership position. And we are seeing tremendous success with our new product launches, particularly our no-lock series, mountain guns, and UCJ frames. In long guns, our unit shipments into the sporting goods channel increased 28.7% versus NICS rising 3.5%. In particular, we saw strong growth in the MSR category in Q4. As a reminder, long guns represent a relatively small portion of our overall sales, only approximately 17% in fiscal 2026. That said, we continue to build momentum in the hunting segment and we'll continue to look for opportunities to fill in this white space. So the net result for the year, Smith & Wesson far outpaced the broader market, with our total shipments into the channel up by 14.7% for the full fiscal year, while NIC decreased by 2.3%. And I'll just highlight that in that same time period, channel inventory remained flat. Again, these impressive numbers are a direct result of our purposeful focus and execution on innovation, marketing, operational excellence, and, of course, power of the iconic Smith & Wesson brand. To underscore that point, new products accounted for nearly 38% of our shipments during Q4 and 38% for the full fiscal year. I'm exceptionally proud of our talented product management, engineering, design, and production teams who consistently create and reliably manufacture products that resonate with our customers while upholding the world-class quality and dependability that they expect Meeting those expectations for innovation and quality allows us to not only take unit share, but maintain strong average selling prices. Sequentially in Q4, handgun ASPs were up 4.3%, and long gun ASPs increased 4.5%. Inventory, we closed Q4 with $156 million in internal inventory, down from $190 million a year ago. Our strong balance sheet and robust sales and operations planning process, which aligns production to forward forecasts across each of our product lines, has positioned us exceptionally well as we enter fiscal 2027. As I spoke about earlier, sale inventory remains flat in units relative to both Q3 and last year, again, signaling healthy sell-through at retail in a very clean position as we enter FY27. Looking forward, we expect a positive momentum to carry into FY27. While we anticipate and are experiencing a typical summer season from a demand perspective, we're continuing to see relatively strong demand for our products and therefore expect our Q1 to significantly outperform last year, as Dina will cover in a few minutes. I emphasize that we believe the market share gains we've secured are the product of years of methodical execution of our innovation strategy, marketing, sales relationships, and focus on operational excellence, as well as our commitment to creating products that meet and surpass consumer expectations. We remain focused on preserving this momentum and maintaining our leadership position in the market. Given what we see on the horizon, we are planning to make investments in our Springfield facility during fiscal 2027, which will increase our capital spend this year as compared to our historical averages. This represents a strategic investment concentrated on expanding our capacity and increasing operational efficiency. We've consistently delivered high returns on our investments in business and are confident this latest initiative will do so as well. along with further strengthening our foundation for sustained long-term growth. In closing, fiscal 2026 was an outstanding year for Smith & Wesson. We delivered strong results across every dimension of our business, from revenue to profitability, from cash flow to debt reduction. We outperformed our competitors in our core categories and achieved meaningful progress in segments that we hadn't historically competed in. We launched our state-of-the-art Smith & Wesson Academy, further strengthening our commitment to our professional customers and providing world-class training to our consumers. We introduced dozens of new products, which were enthusiastically received by our customers. We're making significant investments back into the business to optimize operations. And as I said earlier, this momentum continues into FY27. The combined strength of our brand, our team, our disciplined strategic focus, and strong balance sheet puts us in an excellent position to continue creating long-term value for our stockholders. Finally, I cannot stress enough that all of this is only possible to the amazing team of employees that work tirelessly every day of the year across every function of our business. As always, I want to thank them, each and every one, for their unwavering dedication and for applying their skills every single day to drive our success. I'll turn the call over to Dina to review the financials.

Thanks, Mark. Please note that all comparisons are between the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026 in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2025, unless otherwise stated. Net sales of $178.4 million were $37.6 million, or 26.7% above the prior year, with new products making up 37.5% of total revenue for the quarter. As Mark noted, our outperformance was mostly driven by handgun shipments, which represented over 80% of our units shipped. Our handgun unit sales into the sporting goods channel increased 23.2% over the prior year, while NICs increased only 1.1% with nearly no change in channel inventory, demonstrating strong consumer preference for our products. We also benefited in Q4 from a short-term increase in long gun demand, although the volumes there are much lower than in our handgun line. Gross margin of 29.8% was one percentage point above last year, reflecting a 23% increase in production volume, lower promotions, and a 2% to 3% price increase from January, partially offset by increased volume-related spending to tariffs and inventory reserves. Operating expenses of $31.7 million for our fourth quarter were $4.3 million higher than the prior year due to increased profit-related compensation costs, including profit-sharing and incentives, increased freight-related costs, and higher R&D costs. Net income of $16.2 million in the fourth quarter was $7.6 million more than the prior year due to a combination of higher net sales and gross margin, partially offset by increased profit-related compensation costs. Earnings per share of $0.36 was above the prior year of $0.19. Turning to cash flows, during the quarter we generated $74.6 million in cash from operations and spent $4.8 million on capital projects, resulting in net free cash of $69.7 million. We paid $5.8 million in dividends and we paid $55 million on a revolving line of credit. We ended the quarter with $28.2 million in cash and $20 million in borrowings on our line, representing a net cash position of $8.2 million. During our full fiscal year, we generated $114 million in cash from operations and spent $23.7 million in capital projects, resulting in net heat-free cash generated of $90.4 million. Our board has authorized our quarterly dividend of $0.13 to be paid to stockholders of record on July 1st, with payment to be made on July 15th. Looking forward to fiscal 2027, we expect firearm industry demand in fiscal 2027 to continue to be healthy and slightly higher than in fiscal 2026. Combined with our market share growth, we expect our full fiscal 2027 revenue to grow in mid-single digits compared to full fiscal 2026. We believe our first quarter revenues will be approximately 15% to 20% higher than last year, with margins a point or two higher on increased volume. As a reminder, our prior results were negatively impacted by a reduction in channel inventory, which we are not anticipating this year. With regard to average selling prices, we expect our first quarter to be sequentially lower, in the 5% range, with a decline in handguns being partially offset by an increase and long guns, both due to mix of products sold. Operating expenses for the first quarter are expected to be approximately 20% higher than last year's first quarter due to volume and profit-related costs, such as freight, customer marketing allowances, and profit sharing. Finally, our effective tax rate is expected to be approximately 30%, which is higher than in fiscal 2026, due to prior year favorable adjustments that impacted 2026. For that, operator, can we please open the call to questions from our analyst?

Thank you. And with that, we will now be conducting a question and answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star 1 on your telephone keypad, and confirmation tone indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press star 2 if you would like to remove yourself from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up the handset before pressing the star keys. One moment while we poll for questions. And our first question comes from the line of Mark Smith with Lake Street Capital. Please proceed with your question.

Hi, guys. I wanted to ask, first off, you guys had mentioned meaningful progress in segments you haven't historically competed in. Can you elaborate a little bit more on where all you saw some incremental growth?

Hey, Mark. Yeah, so, you know, obviously the biggest one is in the 1854 with the, you know, entry into that hunting category that we traditionally had not participated in. So continuing to see a really nice market share there for, you know, a product that we just introduced, you know, within the last 18 months. So continues to do really well for us, really pleased with the progress there. And then, you know, also on the long gun side, on the carbine side, continues to do really well with that FPC. So, you know, just some new entrants into some of the categories that we do play in, but, you know, I guess a subcategory within the carbines and then just a brand-new category for us on the hunting side.

Perfect. And then looking at gross profit margin, I know you discussed it a little bit on the call, but I wanted to dig in more on that, just on kind of what helped drive the gross profit margin improvement in fourth quarter, maybe how much of that was just volume versus the 2% to 3% price increase or any other moving parts that help drive some of that outperformance?

Yeah, I mean, there's going to be some tailwinds and headwinds there, obviously. You know, headwinds continue to be the, you know, the tariffs. But, you know, tailwinds there, you know, obviously margin. I think you well know that, you know, as a major manufacturing operation, you know, more volume drives more absorption. And then, obviously, that 2% to 3% price increase that went through very smoothly back in December obviously helped there as well. So a little bit of combination of all of those.

I think you'll remember, Mark, that in fiscal 27, sorry, fiscal 25, we were pulling down inventory. So production levels were quite a bit lower. And we sort of got to a place in fiscal 26 where we were comfortable with inventory and then we were increasing inventory to match. I think we talked about that maybe in the last couple of quarters. So that really increase in introduction volume really gave us a lift on the margin side.

And then just looking at the price increases that were taken in January, any thoughts on kind of how those were received by distributors?

And then just maybe how we're –

Sorry, go ahead.

Oh, go ahead.

Price increase in January is really, Mark, without any fanfare whatsoever. So, you know, I think, you know, that just kind of speaks to, again, as we talk about a lot, the power of the brand and, you know, that innovation strategy of, you know, introducing new products that are going to resonate with that consumer. And, you know, and that just those two things together really hold those ASPs up nicely, so.

And, yeah, new products was kind of my other part of that question, just, you know, how much of that was kind of driven by new products and versus kind of across the board price increases.

Yeah, I think it's important to note that the new products also help the core line because it just elevates the overall perception with the consumer of the brand itself. So, you know, a lot of those new products, I think you've seen them out there, the HD, the competitor, I mentioned some of them on the prepared remarks. But, you know, it's just – and, of course, the marketing, you know, power that we have with our team here and really being the number one voice in the firearms industry really helps the overall brand. So it's not just new products. It helps with the core line as well.

Okay. I think the last one for me, just you guys did a good job cleaning up the balance sheet here, paying down debt. Curious your thoughts around capital allocation. It sounds like some investments back into Springfield, but then maybe how you weigh, you know, the dividend, buybacks, you know, or any other investments as we look forward here to fiscal 27.

Sure. Yeah, I'll take that in a couple of sections. The investments back into Springfield, you know, I think is just a reflection of the, you know, the business and our comfort level with how sustainable that growth is. I think you know, you know, our flexible manufacturing model, we've always got a mix of internal and external machining capacity. So, you know, as we look at, you know, the performance of the core line and the products that we have out there in the marketplace today, market share growth, how sustainable that is, and then we're looking down the line at that new product pipeline, we're always looking at what is the optimal balance of internal versus external there. So, you know, to the extent we see that being sustainable, we're going to, you know, to increase our capacity, and then also some of the new products coming down the line, we need some additional capabilities as well. So let's give you a little color there. You know, we're right now, you know, the initial phase is about 20 new CNC machines. You know, you can expect, you know, about half of those will be online this summer, and they're remaining throughout the rest of this calendar year. So by the end of the calendar year, they should all be operational. And then, you know, the impact to the CapEx spend for this year, I think, you know, Mark, you can expect another, probably an additional about $20 million above our usual, you know, 25 to 30. So with that said, back to the capital allocation that you just mentioned, we've always talked about, you know, capital allocation priorities is first and foremost, invest back in the business where we see the best, you know, where you see a return. And obviously, you know, this is going to have a pretty healthy return for us. So that's going to be the focus this year. But, you know, we still do have, you know, authorization on the buyback from the board. So we'll continue to be opportunistic there. If there's an opportunity, it's still on the table. And then the dividend, as Dean has discovered, we still remain committed to the dividend.

Great. Thank you, guys.

Thanks, Mark.

Thank you. And our next question comes from the line of Romel Dionisio with Aegis Capital Corporation. Please receive with your question.

Good morning. Good afternoon. Thanks for taking my question. Did I hear you say correctly much of the capital expansion or capital expenditure this year would be in Springfield and not in Tennessee? I wonder if you could just clarify that and just maybe the thought behind, you know, kind of reinvesting in Springfield as opposed to the newer facility.

Thanks, Ramal. So as I think you're probably aware, our Springfield facility is really our machining center of excellence where we've got, you know, all of our skilled labor there, you know, a great team there that, you know, they make all of the, you know, they do all the machining work there in Springfield. And then this facility here in Tennessee is kind of, you know, our state-of-the-art facility where we're doing distribution, we're doing assembly, doing some finishing operations, plastic injection molding, and obviously the headquarters. So, you know, and that is going to be the plan going forward is that, you know, Springfield is going to be the machining center and, you know, and then Tennessee is going to be the, you know, the headquarters and all the operations I just mentioned. So the investment in capacity, you know, is happening in Springfield because that is the, you know, that's the machining center where we're, you know, where that capacity is going to be, you know, planned to be for, you know, the machining is going to be planned to be forever. So, you know, that facility is going to continue to be part of our plans, you know, for the future.

Okay, great. That's helpful. And maybe just a follow-up on the new products that you already talked about a little bit. I don't mean to beat it to death, but just on the handgun side, could you just comment on some of the most recent introductions, which maybe didn't necessarily impact the quarter you just reported, like Bodyguard 38 2.0, and I guess you've had the Shield X for several months now. But, yeah, I wonder if you could just comment on the most recent introductions in handguns and obviously the impact that that's having and helping to drive these significant share gains you've seen. Thanks.

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, it's if we're going to point to one thing that's kind of driving the share gains, I think it is new product and, you know, it's handgun new products. So, you know, it's just been, frankly, you know, one home run after another. The Bodyguard 38 that you just mentioned, as you know, was just introduced very recently within the last few weeks. That's doing very well for us. The Bodyguard 380 pistol continues to be a very successful product for us. You know, one of the leading, if not the leading, concealed carry pistol on the market. The Shield X doing very well for us as well. And also, I'll just mention, as I mentioned in prepared remarks, it's not just all of those are kind of concealed carry guns. We're really rounding out the line to, you know, the entire semi-auto pistol line with the competitor, the HD series. You know, so really, you know, all of those new products are doing very well for us. And as I mentioned earlier, you know, really just helping to elevate the brand in general, right? And it's just, you know, the consumer's perception of the brand is, you know, already good and only getting better with all these new products introductions. So they're really doing what we expected.

Great. Thanks very much. Thanks, Romo.

Thank you. And with that, there are no questions at this time. I'd like to turn the floor back to Mark Smith for any closing remarks.

Well, I just want to thank you, Operator, and thank you, everybody, for joining us today

and your interest in our company and Smith & Wesson. Look forward to speaking with you all again next quarter.

Thank you. And with that, ladies and gentlemen, this does conclude today's teleconference. Thank you for your participation. You may disconnect your lines at this time and have a wonderful rest of your day.