Riding High: Briggs & Stratton

(RTTNews) - Shares of Briggs & Stratton Corp. (BGG), which touched a new 52-week high of $23.89 on Friday (Apr.21), have gained nearly 6% year-to-date.

Briggs & Stratton is the world's largest producer of gasoline engines for outdoor power equipment. It caters to both residential and commercial uses.

The Company conducts its operations in two segments - Engines and Products.

The Engines segment is all about the four-cycle aluminum alloy gasoline engines, which are used primarily by the lawn and garden equipment industry, replacement engines and service parts.

The Products segment includes portable and standby generators, pressure washers, snow throwers, lawn and garden power equipment, turf care, and job site products, marketed through its brands Briggs & Stratton, Simplicity, Snapper, Ferris, Vanguard, Allmand, Billy Goat, Murray, Branco and Victa.

About 85% of the Company's engines are manufactured domestically in the U.S., with the country accounting for nearly 72% of its sales. The 'made in the U.S.A.' heritage is something which the Company is proud of.

Briggs & Stratton has a track record of innovations in partnership with OEMs (Original Equipment Manufacturers). The Company, which has conducted over 300 research projects and collected hundreds of thousands of end-user data points, believes that innovation is one of the strategies for growth.

Recent event:

On April 20th, the Company announced financial results for its third fiscal quarter ended April 2, 2017.

On an adjusted basis, the net income for the third quarter of fiscal 2017 was $35.82 million or $0.83 per share compared with $34.94 million or $0.80 per share in the year-ago quarter.

The net sales for third quarter of fiscal 2017 declined to $597 million from $603.7 million last year.

Helped by a more favorable product mix, say higher proportion of commercial engines and commercial products, the positive impact of innovative new engines, and improvements in manufacturing efficiencies, the gross profit margin for the recent third quarter was 22.6% compared to 21.1% last year.

The future...

Briggs & Stratton is optimistic of the opportunities presented by the markets due to their size and anticipated growth rates. The Company believes that it has the brands, the products and the distribution network to grow its commercial portfolio in excess of the market.

Looking ahead to fiscal 2017, the Company expects net sales to be in a range of $1.86 billion to $1.90 billion. The net sales in fiscal 2016 were $1.81 billion.

Net income is expected to be in a range of $57 million to $64 million or $1.31 to $1.46 per diluted share (prior to the impact of any share repurchases). Net income in fiscal 2016 was $26.6 million or $0.60 per share.

BGG has traded in a range of $17.90 to $23.89 over the last 52 weeks. The stock closed Friday's trading at $23.50, up 9.40%.