I ALWAYS get in trouble when I write about today's topic. I
fully anticipate being forced to sit through a meeting about
"staying focused on commodity investments."
But I don't care. Today's topic is so important - and so much
fun to write about that I'll gladly sit through remedial meetings
if I have to.
I'm talking about guns! I personally own a
Sturm and Ruger (
RGR
)
.357 Blackhawk revolver - just like the one pictured below:
And hey, if you're not interested in guns, or you only read
this letter for investing information, take a quick look at this
chart showing the huge surge in gun sales leading up to the 2008
presidential election:
We see from this chart that gun sales in the last presidential
election cycle were higher than the previous two years - and
much, much higher in November.
At the very least, these kinds of sales numbers should draw
your attention to the very limited number of publicly traded gun
manufacturers.
I'll draw your attention to two American gun manufacturers:
Ruger (which I prefer) and
Smith and Wesson (Nasdaq: SWHC)
.
Both of these companies are selling record numbers of guns
this year.
And while Ruger has been my favorite publicly
traded gun company
, Smith and Wesson has really outperformed this year - more than
doubling in price since January 1 from under $5 a share to over
$10 today.
Even more impressive, they grew their earnings per share back
to decade highs, after being in the negative for much of the past
five years.
For safety, I still prefer Ruger - the company seems to do
little else but sell lots of guns and grow its earnings.
And as a personal note, I prefer Ruger's products to S&W's
lineup. There's a saying that revolver aficionados throw around
that goes something like, "
Buy a new Ruger, buy an old Smith and Wesson, and borrow a
Colt."
The implication being that, for production guns, new Rugers
are the best and most reliable - but that older Smith and Wessons
are nice, and Colts, while very good guns, are expensive and tend
to break easily.
If you're looking for a quick trade, I'd consider buying
shares of both these companies, and dumping them after the
election. Could be an easy way to make 10-20% in the next few
months.
If you're looking for a great long-term investment, wait until
after the election, and be patient for a more attractive price
point.