Mark Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, commented, “We delivered yet another strong quarter to close out fiscal 2024. I am very proud of the team’s continuing discipline and execution against our strategic initiatives of strong brand messaging and marketing, best-in-class innovation, operational excellence, and business process efficiencies. Our results in fiscal 2024 again demonstrate that our relentless focus on these long-term strategies consistently reinforces our position as a market leader and delivers solid stockholder returns. While the summer months will be highly competitive as we navigate the traditionally slower season for firearms, we continue to expect healthy demand overall for firearms in fiscal 2025, and Smith & Wesson is well positioned to deliver another solid year of growth. With our deep pipeline of new products, leading brand, new state of the art facility now fully operational, strong balance sheet, and, most importantly, world-class dedicated employees, we are excited to continue delivering value for our stockholders.”
Deana McPherson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, commented, “Our fourth quarter net sales increased by nearly 10% compared to the comparable quarter last year, while our fiscal 2024 sales increased by nearly 12% year-over-year. Fourth quarter gross margin of 35.5% was 6.5% above the prior year comparable quarter, with the full year ending at 29.5%. We generated operating cash of $43.6 million during the fourth quarter and $106.7 million for the full year. Despite a competitive marketplace and inflationary impacts, we expect to grow both net sales and gross margin in fiscal 2025. During fiscal 2024, we repurchased 793,551 shares, utilizing $10.2 million of our $50 million authorization and paid $22.0 million of dividends. Consistent with our capital allocation strategy, our board of directors has authorized a $0.13 per share quarterly dividend, which will be paid to stockholders of record on July 11, 2024 with payment to be made on July 25, 2024.”
Conference Call and Webcast
The company will host a conference call and webcast on June 20, 2024 to discuss its fourth quarter and full fiscal 2024 financial and operational results. Speakers on the conference call will include Mark Smith, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Deana McPherson, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. The conference call may include forward-looking statements. The conference call and webcast will begin at 5:00 p.m. Eastern Time (2:00 p.m. Pacific Time). Interested parties in North America are invited to participate by dialing 1-877-704-4453. Interested parties from outside North America are invited to participate by dialing 1-201-389-0920. Participants should dial in at least 10 minutes prior to the start of the call. The conference call audio webcast can also be accessed live on the company’s website at www.smith-wesson.com, under the Investor Relations section.
Reconciliation of U.S. GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures
In this press release, certain non-GAAP financial measures, including “non-GAAP net income,” “Adjusted EBITDAS,” and “free cash flow” are presented. From time-to-time, we consider and use these supplemental measures of operating performance in order to provide the reader with an improved understanding of underlying performance trends. We believe it is useful for us and the reader to review, as applicable, both (1) GAAP measures that include (i) interest expense, (ii) income tax expense, (iii) depreciation and amortization, (iv) stock-based compensation expense, (v) a gain from the sale of certain intangible assets, (vi) spin related stock-based compensation, (vii) an accrued legal settlement, (viii) Relocation expense, and (ix) the tax effect of non-GAAP adjustments; and (2) the non-GAAP measures that exclude such information. We present these non-GAAP measures because we consider them an important supplemental measure of our performance. Our definition of these adjusted financial measures may differ from similarly named measures used by others. We believe these measures facilitate operating performance comparisons from period to period by eliminating potential differences caused by the existence and timing of certain expense items that would not otherwise be apparent on a GAAP basis. These non-GAAP measures have limitations as an analytical tool and should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for our GAAP measures. The principal limitations of these measures are that they do not reflect our actual expenses and may thus have the effect of inflating its financial measures on a GAAP basis.
About Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc.
Smith & Wesson Brands, Inc. (NASDAQ Global Select: SWBI) is a U.S.-based leader in firearm manufacturing and design, delivering a broad portfolio of quality handgun, long gun, and suppressor products to the global consumer and professional markets under the iconic Smith & Wesson® and Gemtech® brands. The company also provides manufacturing services including forging, machining, and precision plastic injection molding services. For more information call (800) 331-0852 or visit www.smith-wesson.com.
