Frozen 2, Avengers sales help Hasbro ice Wall Street expectations

Hasbro’s full-year 2019 profit blew past Wall Street's expectations, boosted by its line of toys for Disney’s "Frozen 2" and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man franchises. Shares rallied following the news.

The Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based toymaker posted net income of $520.5 million, or $4.05 a share; excluding a pension settlement and currency-exchange gains, profit of $4.08 a share easily beat the $3.77 average estimate from analysts. Sales of $4.72 billion, however, missed projections of $4.74 billion.

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“The global Hasbro team delivered a good year and achieved key objectives,” CEO Brian Goldner said in a statement. “We profitably grew revenues across regions," performed "at a high level" during the lucrative holiday sales period and expanded its "Magic: The Gathering" franchise, he said.

Ticker	Security	Last	Change	Change %
HAS	HASBRO INC.	62.21	-0.85	-1.35%
MAT	MATTEL INC.	18.67	-0.32	-1.69%

Revenue from partner brands, including Disney’s "Frozen 2" and Marvel’s Avengers and Spider-Man franchises, jumped 24 percent year-over-year to $1.22 billion.

That helped to offset some of the weakness in its franchise brands, such as Play-Doh and Monopoly, and gaming segments, which saw declines of 1 percent and 10 percent, respectively.

For the fourth quarter, Hasbro earned $267.3 million, or $2.01 a share, as the stock issued to finance its purchase of Canadian studio eOne snipped 9 cents a share from earnings.

Adjusted earnings were $1.24 a share on revenue of $1.43 billion. Wall Street was looking for adjusted earnings of 91 cents on revenue of $1.44 billion.

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Hasbro shares fell 4.5 percent this year through Monday, lagging the S&P 500's 3.8 percent gain.