American firearm manufacturing company Ruger (NYSE: RGR) reported revenue ahead of Wall Street’s expectations in Q4 CY2025, with sales up 3.7% year on year to $151.1 million. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.26 per share was 17.5% below analysts’ consensus estimates.

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Company Overview

Founded in 1949, Ruger (NYSE: RGR) is an American manufacturer of firearms for the commercial sporting market.

Revenue Growth

A company’s long-term sales performance is one signal of its overall quality. Any business can put up a good quarter or two, but many enduring ones grow for years. Unfortunately, Ruger struggled to consistently increase demand as its $546.1 million of sales for the trailing 12 months was close to its revenue five years ago. This wasn’t a great result and suggests it’s a low quality business.

Long-term growth is the most important, but within consumer discretionary, product cycles are short and revenue can be hit-driven due to rapidly changing trends and consumer preferences. Just like its five-year trend, Ruger’s revenue over the last two years was flat, suggesting it is in a slump.

This quarter, Ruger reported modest year-on-year revenue growth of 3.7% but beat Wall Street’s estimates by 8.5%.

Looking ahead, sell-side analysts expect revenue to decline by 2.7% over the next 12 months, a slight deceleration versus the last two years. This projection is underwhelming and indicates its products and services will face some demand challenges.

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Operating Margin

Operating margin is an important measure of profitability as it shows the portion of revenue left after accounting for all core expenses – everything from the cost of goods sold to advertising and wages. It’s also useful for comparing profitability across companies with different levels of debt and tax rates because it excludes interest and taxes.

Ruger’s operating margin has shrunk over the last 12 months and averaged 1.9% over the last two years. The company’s profitability was mediocre for a consumer discretionary business and shows it couldn’t pass its higher operating expenses onto its customers.

In Q4, Ruger generated an operating margin profit margin of 2.3%, down 6.6 percentage points year on year. This contraction shows it was less efficient because its expenses grew faster than its revenue.

Earnings Per Share

Revenue trends explain a company’s historical growth, but the long-term change in earnings per share (EPS) points to the profitability of that growth – for example, a company could inflate its sales through excessive spending on advertising and promotions.

Sadly for Ruger, its EPS declined by 24.6% annually over the last five years while its revenue was flat. This tells us the company struggled because its fixed cost base made it difficult to adjust to choppy demand.

In Q4, Ruger reported adjusted EPS of $0.26, down from $0.62 in the same quarter last year. This print missed analysts’ estimates. Over the next 12 months, Wall Street expects Ruger’s full-year EPS of $1.24 to grow 42.7%.

Key Takeaways from Ruger’s Q4 Results

We were impressed by how significantly Ruger blew past analysts’ EBITDA expectations this quarter. We were also excited its revenue outperformed Wall Street’s estimates by a wide margin. On the other hand, its EPS missed. Overall, we think this was a decent quarter with some key metrics above expectations. The market seemed to be hoping for more, and the stock traded down 1.1% to $37.54 immediately after reporting.

Is Ruger an attractive investment opportunity right now? The latest quarter does matter, but not nearly as much as longer-term fundamentals and valuation, when deciding if the stock is a buy. We cover that in our actionable full research report which you can read here (it’s free).