50% off Premium Yearly
MattelMATDON'T BUYFeb 27, 2015Stock price when the opinion was issued
As of Jun 16, 2026. Market Open.
Not too long ago this company was on their short list. They are in trouble. They blown up their balance sheet and the returns are terrible. Hasbro (HAS-Q) has put up a potential bid out there and it would make a lot of sense. Your best hope is that buyout. It’s too risky. Maybe they will just wait for them to go bankrupt and pick the assets. They are really not in great shape.
(A Top Pick Feb 9/17. Down 38%.) This has been a dog this year. One problem is e-commerce on big box stores. Also, they have new management that is still trying to correct their brands and turn around sales. The new CEO is a former Google executive, and is bringing in a completely different attitude and vision to the toy industry. Barbie, American Girl and Fisher-Price have great brand power, and should and could be used better in a digital world where the company can earn more money.
This is in the toy space with Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels, Barbie. Historically a good chunk of where their revenues have come from has been selling Disney toys. Recently they lost a Disney contract. The challenge now is around future contracts. The bigger issue is the way children play with toys now. They are using iPads, which have thousands and thousands of apps where they can do all sorts of things. Has an attractive dividend of about 6%.