I think it’s just the base damage. At least, I’ve noticed it changes the stat once I actually equip a weapon that has the armor based damage modifier perk (whatever that one’s called).
I really wish there was better stat info for the gear in this game. I don’t want to have to do the math to figure out DPS every time I think about swapping out a weapon, especially if it changes the stats based on perks and skills when you equip it. On XBox, I can’t even install that nifty inventory mod someone made for PC. Bummer.

I’m pretty sure it does because whenever I put points in some of my combat skills I definitely saw the numbers in my inventory increase as well.

However, I do want to add that I use the inventory mod and I have used it since I started so I’m not sure if it’s the mod or if the vanilla game does this as well.