This post was originally published on this site
Shares of Digital Ally Inc. and Cemtrex Inc. vaulted higher Monday, as the nationwide protests against police killings fueled investor interest in the security products makers.
The social unrest and looting in some cities also provided a boost to the stocks of guns and ammunition makers.
Cemtrex’s stock CETX, +191.44% nearly tripled, rocketing 168% in midday trading, to put it on track for the first close above the $1 mark in three months, and the highest close in 11 months. Trading volume spiked up to 100.5 million shares, enough to make it the most actively traded stock on the Nasdaq exchange, and multiples of the full-day average of about 915,000 shares.
The company’s Vicon business makes security cameras used by law enforcement for surveillance.
Digital Ally’s stock DGLY, +103.12% more than doubled, vaulting 104%, toward the highest close since mid-June 2019. Volume ballooned to 61.5 million shares, the third-most on the Nasdaq, and compared with the full-day average of about 658,000 shares.
The company makes body-worn and in-car video systems, which are sold to law enforcement agencies and private security customers.
The stocks ranked first and second on the list of the Nasdaq’s biggest percentage gainers.
Elsewhere, shares of Vislink Technologies Inc. VISL, +26.87% soared 29% toward the highest close in seven months. About 66.1 million shares changed hands, above the full-day average of about 33.5 million shares. The stock was the second-most active on the Nasdaq.
The company makes communications equipment, such as receiver and antenna systems that provide video and data transmission, which are used by state, local and federal law enforcement agencies and branches of armed forces.
The rallies come amid slight gains in the broader stock market, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.31% tacking on 32 points, or 0.1% and the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.41% edging up 0.1%.
The interest in these security stocks follows a weekend in which protests continued across the country, some turning violent, following the killing of George Floyd, a black man, by a white police officer in Minneapolis.
Floyd’s death comes less than a month after two white men were arrested in May, for the shooting death in February of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man who was jogging in a park in Georgia, and the police shooting of Breonna Taylor, a black woman, in her home in Louisville.
See related: Police officers accused of brutality often have a history of violence with few consequences.
With the protests turning violent in some instances, as fires were started and stores were looted, electrical weapons, firearm and ammunition stocks also got a big boost Monday.
Shares of Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. ran up 17%, putting them on track for an 18-month closing high. The gun maker changed its name from American Outdoor Brands Corp., and its ticker symbol to “SWBI” from “AOBC,” effective Monday.
Trading volume was 1.4 million shares, compared with the full-day average of about 820,000 shares.
Sturm, Ruger & Co. Inc.’s stock RGR, +10.20% hiked up 12% on volume of 985, 000 shares, which was already about triple the full-day average. That put the stock on track to close at a 20-month high.
Sturm, Ruger makes handguns, assault-style and single-shot rifles, magazines and loaders and silencers.
Gun stocks had already been rallying in recent months, as the COVID-19 pandemic appeared to spark demand for firearms. As KeyBanc Capital analyst Brett Andress pointed out last month, a jump in demand for firearms was a result of “fear-based purchases amid social unrest” caused by the pandemic.
The stock of Axon Enterprise Inc. AAXN, +16.04%, which changed its name from Taser International Inc. in April 2017, rallied 16% toward a 3 1/2-month high. Volume was 3.2 million shares, or about 4-times the full-day average.
The company makes electrical weapons and body cameras used by law enforcement.
Shares of Vista Outdoor Inc. VSTO, +9.99%, which makes shooting sports and outdoor products, including ammunition, scopes and CamelBak water drinking products, jumped 10% on volume of 2.9 million shares, which was more than double the full-day average.
The stock was heading for the highest close since January 2019.
