Malibu Boats shares fell 14.9% in morning trading on 5 November after the company said a soft summer for wake boats left quarterly sales just below its own forecast. Sales still rose 29.9% to $252.9 million, most of the growth coming from Saxdor, the Finnish dayboat brand Malibu recently bought.
What Malibu reported
Malibu sold 1,299 boats in the three months to 30 September, up 15.1%. Saxdor contributed $51.1 million and 139 boats. Net income was $6.1 million, against a loss of $0.7 million a year earlier. Sales came in below analysts' estimates, Barchart reported, and StockStory put the morning fall at 14.9%.
"Our results for the September quarter reflect a retail environment that softened over the summer and our decision to manage wholesale shipments with discipline to protect dealer health," chief executive Steven Menneto said on the earnings call. He said the slowdown was in the ski and wake category across the industry: "To be clear, this is a category dynamic. Not a Malibu specific issue."
What it means for buyers
Malibu said dealer inventory was down by a low double-digit percentage from a year earlier, because it shipped fewer boats to match what dealers were selling. Its Cobalt and saltwater brands grew volume after a dealer inventory reset the year before. Malibu expects sales of $236 million to $248 million in the three months to December, and it is moving its financial year to end in December.
Malibu showed seven brands at last week's Fort Lauderdale boat show and said retail sales and model mix were better than at the 2025 show. Its new boats there included a completely redesigned Cobalt 265 Coastal Edition and the Pursuit S288.
Saxdor boats are now being built in the US. Menneto said production started in July at Malibu's Fort Pierce, Florida plant: "our first U.S.-built Saxdor 23 GTO was successfully completed." He also said Malibu is working with MarineMax to expand Saxdor's US distribution. MarineMax itself reported a loss this week, ahead of a shareholder vote on its sale to Safe Harbor.
Malibu's HIN and recall record
Malibu hulls carry the builder code MB2, which the Coast Guard's manufacturer register now lists as Malibu Boats of TN, LLC in Loudon, Tennessee. Axis boats appear under a separate code, AWR, in the recall records. The Coast Guard database lists six campaigns under the Malibu Boats name. The most recent, opened in September 2020, covers the Wakesetter. A campaign on record means some boats of that model and year were recalled, not that a particular hull was.
Before you buy a used Malibu, decode the HIN with the free HIN decoder to confirm the builder and model year match the listing, then look up every Malibu recall on record and ask the seller for the dealer's paperwork on any campaign that matches.
Check the boat, not just the listing
Type the 12-character hull number from the transom. The decoder reads the builder, build month and model year, and the recall lookup lists any US Coast Guard recall campaign on record for that manufacturer. Free, no account.
