>>Monday I may pick up some more.
CNBC's Faber may have greased the skids by reporting rumors:
"In fact, I am hearing from people close to Mattel expectations that its third quarter will fall materially below the 69 cents or so that is expected."
But things may be looking up:
"Toy analyst Sean McGowan at Gerard Klauer Mattison told clients today that his industry sources reported retail sales of Barbie showed good improvement in the third quarter. McGowan is telling clients that retail sales momentum for Barbie improved through the summer months and continued to be strong with August showing double-digit sales increases, in fact in the mid-teens.
A Mattel spokesman would not comment on the company's financial performance for the third quarter.
McGowan, who accurately predicted Mattel's big earnings miss last fall and got clients out, does not believe that Mattel will materially miss his 69-cent-a-share estimate for the third quarter.
Though he does believe the threat of an earnings disappointment may hamper the stock ... he told me moments ago that international could continue to be a problem. He does rate the stock a buy."
Dow Jones Newswires -- October 1, 1999
DJ CNBC's FABER REPORT: No Fun In Toyland
The following is a portion of a report aired Friday on CNBC-TV by reporter David Faber:
With the final selling day of its third quarter having just passed, the market has been making some negative assumptions at toy maker Mattel. The stock has had a horrific week, dropping over 18%, closer to 20% right now, to a level it hasn't seen since the earliest parts of 1995.
The market value of the company is hovering about $7.5 billion dollars.
The reason is continued concern that Mattel will not prove successful in dragging itself out of a series of poor quarterly performances.
In fact, I am hearing from people close to Mattel expectations that its third quarter will fall materially below the 69 cents or so that is expected.
While the company may try to lay some of the blame for that potentially poor performance on its recent acquisition of children's software company The Learning Co., the real question is whether Mattel has sufficiently resolved the Barbie inventory issues that have plagued it in previous quarters.
(A full transcript of the report will follow.)
The following is a report that was aired Friday on CNBC-TV by reporter David Faber:
"With the final selling day of its third quarter having just past, the market has been making some negative assumptions about toy maker Mattel. The stock has had a horrific week, dropping over 18%, closer to 20% right now, to a level it hasn't seen since the earliest parts of 1995.
The market value of the company is hovering about $7.5 billion dollars.
The reason is continued concern that Mattel will not prove successful in dragging itself out of a series of poor quarterly performances.
In fact, I am hearing from people close to Mattel expectations that its third quarter will fall materially below the 69 cents or so that is expected.
While the company may try to lay some of the blame for that potentially poor performance on its recent acquisition of children's software company The Learning Co., the real question is whether Mattel has sufficiently resolved the Barbie inventory issues that have plagued it in previous quarters.
Toy analyst Sean McGowan at Gerard Klauer Mattison told clients today that his industry sources reported retail sales of Barbie showed good improvement in the third quarter. McGowan is telling clients that retail sales momentum for Barbie improved through the summer months and continued to be strong with August showing double-digit sales increases, in fact in the mid-teens.
A Mattel spokesman would not comment on the company's financial performance for the third quarter.
McGowan, who accurately predicted Mattel's big earnings miss last fall and got clients out, does not believe that Mattel will materially miss his 69-cent-a-share estimate for the third quarter.
Though he does believe the threat of an earnings disappointment may hamper the stock ... he told me moments ago that international could continue to be a problem. He does rate the stock a buy.
As I said, expectations from my sources are that Mattel will miss materially, with inventory levels still proving to be the stumbling block. But while such talk may be based on reasoned analysis of the business, remember (that) no one knows what is in an earnings report unless they are getting inside information. This is all speculative talk in nature.
Either way, the stock's recent descent has increased other talk, namely that Mattel's CEO Jill Barad will be forced out.
Barad, after a highly successful career as a product manager and brand builder at Mattel, took over as CEO in January of 1997. At that time, the stock hovered around the $30 level.
The Mattel spokesman said the board of the company continues to support Barad. But based on conversations I've had with a number of Mattel shareholders, they hope the board will act to remove Barad and expect (that) if it does, the stock will respond positively.
None would allow their names to be used, though, but if Mattel does miss third-quarter estimates the chorus for Barad's ouster will only grow louder."
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