Ruger--Big profits

[onceabull]

Guys: offered for your consideration: Sturm,Ruger & CO,Inc: Net firearms sales FY 2000 $166.415 Million, FY 2004 $ 124.924 Million. Net castings Sales: FY 2000 -$36.239 Million,FY 2004--$20.700 Million. Consolidated GROSS profit FY 2000---$58.151 MIllion,FY 2004--$ 29.033 Million.If every dollar of castings sales were gross profit,there were still $ 8.3 million in gross coming from firearms sales Earning per share trends even more ominous..$1.00 in 2000, $0.16 in 2004.. Dividend eliminated 4th Q .. looks like an "ultimate contrarian" Investment ,& for less than $700 you can own 100 s.and join less than 2000 other registered shareholders.. let management know everything they should be doing !!! Remember when trends for the 'pure" oil refiners look this bad,and what an opportunity it was !! fwiw,Onceabull

[Junior1942]

That's NYSE symbol RGR at ~$6.74 now.

[grumble]

"...Remember when trends for the 'pure" oil refiners look this bad,and what an opportunity it was !! fwiw,Onceabull"

After the legislation protecting firearms manufacturers was passed by congress, you'd think their equity shares would go up. They didn't.

I'd suggest that rather than comparing firearms makers to the oil stocks when oil was under $20 per barrel, a better comparison would be other manufacturing industries, like Ford, GM, Deere, and Boeing. In the US, labor has almost priced itself out of a job. Heavy manufacturing in the US is not a particularly attractive investment.

[KCSO]

A fried of mine worked for Ruger and what surprised me is how little part the guns play, and just what Ruger guns are. Ruger makes investment castings for more gun companies than I can count and that is still a drop in their bucket. Their BIG business is tool making. I was told that this is 60% or more of thier total output. This friend worked for the investment casting division and when I mentioned a tool or part it was" Yea we made those". I wish I had kept some of the samples and factory give aways he gave me. I was amazed, they are like Winchester was in the 20's and 30's a finger in every pie. Sort of like Iver Johnson who made as much money on bicycles as they did with guns.

[onceabull]

GRumble & KCSO: grumble makes good point re:"manufacturing industries".and I doubt we can expect the Gummint to keep Ruger or S & W afloat with loan guarantees a la Chrysler pre-Takeover..But, "pure refiners"was phrase chosen to exclude "Oil companies" in order to point to more speculative class of investments..If preferred, compare to Gold stocks when the metal sold for $260...Big returns more often than not produced by out of favor investments, but one needs good timing!! KCSO; Ruger only breaks out Firearms Sales,and Investment castings, firearms parts for others,golf clubs ,etc..are Investment Casting sales for reporting purposes...BTW,already the worlds largest caster of golf club heads is Chinese company "BIAM"--fwiw ,Onceabull

[Blackwater]

Grumble, I'd have to disagree with you about labor pricing themselves out of reason. The REASON I disagree, though, is because of all the gov't mandated things that takes staff to process. The really productive folks probably get the least pay of any of the companies' employees. Legislation, AND PEOPLES' VOTES IN ELECTIONS, have created a very "top heavy" administration that most other countries don't mandate, and THAT is a BIG factor here. It's changed our whole economy, and NOT, I think, for the better. The old dinosaurs, it's said, disappeared simply because they were too dang big, and I see some parallel here regarding current American business, which is now under the almighty thumb of our nearly All Powerful Government.

As governments get bigger, they can only slow down and make inefficient businesses that previously had run MUCH more efficiently. The root cause of Big Gov't, though, is "We the People's" mandating all this. The "cure" can sometimes be worse than the illness, if we aren't wise, and I fear we HAVEN'T been very wise in the creation and expansion of gov't.

The labor unions that initially sought to eliminate injurious child labor and the like, NOW only provide yet ANOTHER "problem" to be surmounted in the average workin' stiff's life and search for genuine productivity and sustenance. We NOW have even MORE "regulatory" bodies "over" us than we've ever had. And yet, we wonder why things aren't more efficient???? But then, True Rationality hasn't ever been the great and most notable quality of people in large numbers. I think Twain noted that, didn't he?

Just don't ask me how we get back to more rational and workable business, though. From what I see, there's no way to get back there from here. It could turn a fellow to strong drink, sometimes, which is the only "good" thing in the whole matter. At least the rheumatiz gives me a passable reason for those who "don't believe" in imbibing.