MarineMax to buy back stock at bargain rates

MarineMax, the largest recreational boat and yacht retailer in the US, today announced that its Board of Directors approved a new stock repurchase plan authorizing the Company to buy up to 10 million shares of its common stock during the period ending March 31, 2022. The new repurchase plan follows the February 2019 plan, which authorized the repurchase of up to 2.33 million shares, of which 1.70 million shares had been repurchased. Under the new plan, the Company may purchase common stock from time to time in the open market or in privately negotiated block purchase transactions.

As of closing on Friday, 13 March the MarineMax shares were priced at $9.57 – a 52-week decline of -51%.  The retailer’s share price hit a one-year high of $23.15 just a few weeks ago on very strong fourth quarter results and positive outlook for 2020. Nearly all of the 25 publicly-traded companies that IBI regularly follows are seeing similar results in the wake of the Coronavirus global spread and market sell-off – with most marine industry companies suffering share price losses of approximately 50% and trading at or near the bottom of their 52-week price rrange.  Assuming MarineMax acts on the buyback soon, it will not only be getting a bargain rate, but also signalling to the market its confidence in the company’s longer-term prospects.

The amount and timing of any purchases will depend upon a number of factors, including the price and availability of the Company’s stock and general market conditions. The Company intends to repurchase shares to mitigate the dilutive effect of stock options, and shares repurchased may be reserved for later reissue in connection with employee benefit plans and other general corporate purposes.

As of February 29, 2020, the Company had 21,530,867 shares of common stock outstanding.