What happened
Gunsmith American Outdoor Brands (SWBI -0.32%) is on a tear, with its stock up a whopping 38.1% as of 11:20 a.m. EDT Friday after reporting strong fiscal Q1 2019 earnings.
Wall Street was looking for American Outdoor to earn only $0.12 per share in fiscal Q1. Instead, the company confirmed this morning that it earned $0.14 per share GAAP, and $0.21 pro forma.
American Outdoor Brands' numbers look gold-plated today. Image source: Getty Images.
So what
American Outdoor Brands booked sales of $138.8 million in Q1, an 8% increase over last year's Q1 results. Gross profit margins surged 630 basis points, turning that rather modest sales increase into a romp on the bottom line -- $0.14 in profit earned per share, versus last year's $0.04-per-share loss.
CEO James Debney credited the company's sales growth and earnings turnaround to success in cutting both costs and "promotions," combined with strong customer demand for new products last quarter.
Now what
Riding a tailwind from Q1, American Outdoor Brands updated its guidance for Q2 and for the rest of this year as well. In its current fiscal second quarter 2019, American Outdoor expects to earn between $0.04 and $0.08 per share on sales of $150 million to $160 million.
Full-year earnings should range from $0.32 to $0.36 per diluted share, with sales running between $620 million and $630 million.
