Citing ongoing weakness in the firearms market where NICS checks declined 8% in the period, Sturm, Ruger net income fell 9% to $13,033,000 from $14,264,000 as sales declined 13% to $114,038,000 from $131,159,000 for the period ended Mar. 30. Ruger said improved pricing despite the softness enabled it to grow margins as gross margin was raised to 28.6% from 27.3% prior and offset some of the SG&A deleverage on the lower sales volume of 110 b.p. to 14.2%. It noted that $20.9 million in sales came from products that had been introduced in the last two years.

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