Mattel Misses, Hasbro Beats

In a battle of the world’s top two toymakers this morning, #1 Mattel (MAT) missed the 3rd quarter Zacks consensus by 4 cents per share, while #2 Hasbro (HAS) beat the Zacks consensus by 4 cents.  And as the market opened with upward momentum this morning, Mattel and Hasbro shares are both down over 2%.

For toymakers, the 4th quarter holiday season is all-important, and by every account this year is going to result in the poorest holiday season in well over a decade.  So even though Mattel — the maker of Barbie, Fisher-Price and American Girl toys — saw its 3rd quarter sales rise 6% and Hasbro — with its Star Wars, Playskool, Nerf and Scrabble brands — beat estimates in the quarter, the outlook for both companies is strongly tempered by the struggling U.S. economy ahead of Christmas 2008.

Zacks senior analyst Sean P. Smith had issued research reports on both companies ahead of their earnings reports, and retained a note of caution for both, along with Hold ratings.  In his Mattel report, he had this to say: “Given the current economic environment… we expect that the upcoming holiday shopping season will prove to be challenging.”

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