Here’s What’s Behind the Drop in Boat Stocks

Top boat stocks, including Marine Products (NYSE:MPX), Marinemax (NYSE:HZO), and Malibu Boats (NASDAQ:MBUU), closed 9.31%, 4.75%, and 4.22% lower on Wednesday. The drop in these boating stocks came after MasterCraft Boat Holdings (NASDAQ: MCFT) provided a weak Fiscal 2024 outlook.  

MasterCraft witnessed a year-over-year decline in its top and bottom lines in Q4. Nonetheless, its earnings surpassed the Street’s estimate. However, its management pointed out that elevated interest rates and credit availability add uncertainty and limit retail demand visibility. Given the uncertain retail outlook, the company expects its wholesale unit sales for fiscal 2024 to be lower than the projected retail sales.

The dealer inventories remain elevated given the lower demand environment, noted MasterCraft’s management. Moreover, its management believes that the industry’s retail unit sales could decline by the mid-teens rate in fiscal 2024, which is not good news for these boating companies and indicates challenges ahead.

Against this background, let’s use TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool to check what’s on the horizon for these boat-related stocks.

What’s Ahead for Boat Stocks? 

TipRanks’ Stock Comparison tool shows that none of these stocks have an Outperform Smart Score. Further, MCFT and MPX stocks have a Hold consensus rating, while analysts are cautiously optimistic about HZO and MBUU.            

TipRanks’ Smart Score tool scores stocks on eight key parameters, including Wall Street analysts’ ratings, hedge fund activity, corporate insider transactions, fundamentals, and technical analysis, among other metrics. 

Based on Smart Score, investors should exercise caution before investing in these boat stocks. The weak demand environment reinforces this perspective, potentially leading to reduced sales and earnings for these companies in the short term.

Disclosure