I am going to admit, I have been putting off writing this post for a bit because I really hate reporting bad news. Ruger recently announced that they experienced a reasonably significant earnings drop for the second quarter of 2017 translating to smaller payouts for stock holders. Reporting only $299.2 million in net sales this quarter, Ruger just didn’t come close to the same period of 2016 where Ruger reported net sales of $341.1 million.

The ever changing market is in a strange state that we haven’t seen in almost a decade, if not longer. Ruger’s Chief Executive Officer Christopher J. Killoy stated that 29% of the firearms Ruger sold were Mark IV pistols, Precision Rifles, and the LCP II pistol.

The reasonably stagnant AR-15 market is no doubt hurting not only retailers but also manufacturers who were selling huge numbers of America’s most popular rifle. Further complicating things, NICS (National Instant Criminal Background Check System) saw a 7% decrease in overall volume when compared to the second quarter of 2016.

Another factor to the earnings drop is the voluntary recall on the Ruger Mark IV pistols that is expected to cost the company $2.5 million dollars. If you are not familiar with the Mark IV recall, read the whole story HERE.

If you happen to be a financial wiz and can make more sense of the Ruger earnings report, you can find Ruger’s quarterly report on Form 10-Q HERE. If you are interested in the product lineup that Ruger has to offer you can check out the Ruger website for more information. Investors can head over to the Ruger Corporate website for more information and past earnings statements.