Hasbro Shares Take Major Beating As Easy-Bake Oven Sales Cool Off
Hasbro (HAS) suffered its largest share drop in nearly two years on Monday after the toymaker said sales of its Easy-Bake, Playskool and Super Soaker brands plummeted in the second quarter.
The Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based company said that quarterly sales in what it calls its “emerging brands” fell 14% to $62.9 million, dampening what was otherwise a stellar quarter, with revenue in Hasbro’s franchise brands like Transformers, Nerf and Monopoly rising 21% to $545.7 million. The company also saw sluggishness in its group that includes Star Wars and Marvel products, with sales up only 1%.
Shares fell 8.5% to $105 on Monday, their worse drop since October 2015, according to Bloomberg data. Mattel (MAT) shares also dipped, slipping 5%.
Hasbro also said that weak sales in Brazil and Great Britain has weighed on sales.
Still, many analysts felt the sell-off was over done. For one thing, the upcoming “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” film is expected to help fuel results in the second half of the year. And Jefferies said in a research note after the company said toy industry sales were up 4%, that Hasbro’s sales increase means it “is taking meaningful share” of the toy industry. What’s more, with shares up 49% for the year through before Monday’s earnings report, Hasbro was due for a sell-off.
