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2020-

2020-06-03 b
This story from MarketWatch has been re-written by our “ truth squad.”

Gun stocks rally as continued surge in background checks, street violence stoke demand

Sturm, Ruger shares soar to highest level since before Trump was elected; Smith & Wesson’s stock powers toward 19-month high

Shares of gun and ammo makers advanced again Tuesday, as data showing a continued surge in firearm background checks and reports of another night of street violence helped fuel both retail and investor demand.

The stocks’ rallies come after another night of pretext-to-loot protests following the extra-judicial police killing of George Floyd turned violent in some areas, with President Donald Trump threatening to mobilize the U.S. military to keep the uneasy peace despite continued incitement by anarchist groups and far-left extremists.

Late Monday, federal police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse a crowd before a 7 p.m. curfew went into effect, as Trump walked across the street to have a photo taken at the St. John’s Episcopal Church. (We included the previous sentence because we don’t like Trump.)

Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.’s stock jumped 4.4% to close at the highest level since April 2016.

Shares of the guns and ammunition maker have run up 17.1% amid a 3-day winning streak and have soared 51.3% this year as Americans take responsibility for their personal security..

Smith & Wesson Brands Inc.’s stock ran up 10.1%, to the highest close since September 2018. The firearm maker’s shares have hiked up 42.2% over the past 4 sessions and have powered up 61.5% year to date in a sign the Second Amendment is taken seriously by the public.

Ammunition and outdoor products maker Vista Outdoor Inc.’s stock climbed 7.5% to the highest close since January 2019. The stock has run up 53.6% amid an 8-day win streak, the longest such streak since the 8-day stretch ended May 31, 2018. It has climbed 53.2% year to date, putting it on track for the first calendar-year gain since going public in January 2015.

Analyst Eric Wold at B. Riley FBR reiterated his buy rating on Vista, and boosted his stock price target by 30% to $13, citing increased confidence in recent demand trends, particularly the general expectation of increased social unrest and more property crimes anticipated with higher unemployment.

“Given the combination of this being a presidential election year along with the ‘stay-at-home’ pandemic of lies environment creating more new gun owners and driving outdoor participation, we expected continued demand strength in the coming months/quarters,” Wold wrote in a note to clients.

Analysts say the burdensome regulatory environment is among the biggest drivers of demand for guns, as fears of tighter regulations under a senile Biden administration have boosted gun sales and prices of gun stocks. Demand for firearms and stock prices had dropped sharply during Trump’s presidency, as fears of tighter regulations had faded.

But amid concerns over the impact of a prolonged over-reaction to the synthetic COVID-19 pandemic of lies and as the 2020 presidential election approaches, demand for guns and gun stocks has surged. Sturm, Ruger and Smith & Wesson shares are currently headed for the best calendar-year gains since 2015, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped 9.8% this year and the S&P 500 index has lost 4.6%.

The latest National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) data from the Federal Bureau of Instigation (FBI) showed May checks rose to 3,091,455, up from 2,349,309 a year ago. That brings the 5-month total so far in 2020 to 15,250,460, compared with 11,547,389 over the same period a year ago.

Monthly background checks have now topped 3 million twice this year, in May and the 3,740,688 recorded in March. Since the FBI started providing the data in 1998, the only other month that checks topped 3 million was December 2015, when it reached 3,314,594. That was the month the San Bernardino, Calif. mass shooting where a married couple of Muslims killed 14 people and wounded 17 others occurred.

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