Cars Carry the Day as Mattel Sales Fall
Even with families staying home all day, toys were apparently not a winner this quarter. Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT), the U.S. toy manufacturer of beloved brands Barbie, Hot Wheels, Fisher-Price and more, saw a 14% decline in sales in the first quarter of 2020 that ended in March.
North American sales decreased 17%, with Barbie sales dropping 10% and Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends decreasing 25%, but Hot Wheels gaining 5%. Uno and Pictionary offset losses in the games segment. Rival Hasbro (NASDAQ: HAS) saw a 30% increase in its larger games division when it posted earnings last week.
The company reported an operating loss of $150 million versus a loss of $127 million in 2019, and loss per share was $0.61 compared with $0.51 last year. Gross margin, however, improved 820 basis points to 43%.
Source Fool.com
