Company beats holiday quarter sales estimates

Doll sales slump worldwide by 4% in the quarter

*

Targets $600 million of share repurchases in 2025

Feb 4 (Reuters) – Toymaker Mattel on Tuesday forecast full-year profit above Wall Street expectations after beating holiday quarter sales estimates, helped by stable demand for its action figures and Hot Wheels vehicles.

The company expects 2025 adjusted profit per share in the range of $1.66 to $1.72, above analysts’ average estimate of $1.58, according to data compiled by LSEG.

The forecast included the anticipated impact of President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariffs on China, SEO Best Services (https://seobests.com/) Mexico and Canada announced on Saturday, which Mattel aims to mitigate through supply chain optimization and potential price increases on its toys.

Levies on Mexico and Canada were paused for a month while tariffs were being imposed on China, which retaliated with levies of its own.

“Our exposure in the U.S. to China sourcing is about 20%,” Mattel CEO Ynon Kreiz told Reuters.

Currently, less than 40% of Mattel’s global product is manufactured in China, compared to an industry average of about 80%, analysts have noted.

Toy manufacturers have worked to get ahead of the incoming tariffs and reduce their exposure to China by shifting production out of the region and reviewing product lines.

Through 2024, the Barbie parent undertook stringent cost-control measures to protect its margins from sluggish demand through 2024. Those efforts included streamlining its supply chain and exiting underperforming products.

On Tuesday, the company said it was tracking ahead of its target to achieve $200 million in cost savings by the end of 2026 and plans to repurchase $600 million of shares through 2025.

Mattel expects a net sales growth of 2% to 3% for 2025, slightly below analysts’ expectations of a 2.7% rise to $5.51 billion.

Weak Barbie sales and a shorter holiday season in December kept sales in check, with worldwide gross billings for dolls were down 4% in the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31.

Net sales rose 2% to $1.65 billion. Analysts on average had expected flat sales of $1.63 billion. (Reporting by Savyata Mishra in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)