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Mattel Inc. surprised Wall Street late Tuesday with a quarterly profit and sales that topped $1 billion as toys from American Girl to Thomas the Train flew off the shelves and the company claimed to be in its best shape in many years.
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said it lost $5.5 million, or 2 cents a share, in the quarter, compared with a loss of $111 million, or 32 cents a share, in the year-ago period. Adjusted for one-time items, Mattel earned 3 cents a share.
Sales rose 40% to $1.03 billion, from $732 million a year ago.
Analysts polled by FactSet expected Mattel to report an adjusted loss of 5 cents a share on sales of $879 million.
“This was another exceptional quarter for Mattel, with outstanding consumer demand for our product,” Chief Executive Ynon Kreiz said in a statement. “We believe we are in the strongest position we have been in many years to improve profitability and accelerate topline growth.”
Shares of Mattel ended the regular trading day down 1.2%. For the year, the toy maker’s stock has gained 18%, compared with an advance of around 17% for the S&P 500 index
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