Little holiday-season joy for toy maker Mattel

It was not a happy holiday season for toy maker Mattel.

The El Segundo, California, company on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter results that fell well short of Wall Street expectations and its stock took a big hit in after-hours trading.

CEO Christopher Sinclair cited a "significant U.S. toy category slowdown in the holiday period" among factors weighing on Mattel's numbers.

Mattel reported fourth-quarter profit of $173.8 million, or 50 cents a share. Earnings, adjusted for restructuring costs, were 52 cents per share.

The average estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 71 cents per share.

The company reported revenue of $1.83 billion in the period. Six analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.98 billion

A year ago, Mattel earned $215.2 million, or 63 cents a share, on revenue of just under $2 billion.

For the year, the company reported profit of $318 million, or 92 cents per share. Revenue was reported as $5.46 billion.

Shares in Mattel Inc. were off $3.36, or nearly11 percent, at $28.20 in extended trading following the release of the earnings report.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MAT at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MAT

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Keywords: Mattel, Earnings Report