Here's Why Shares of Mattel Were Up on Monday
What happened
Shares of Mattel (NASDAQ: MAT) climbed 8.3% midday on Monday before settling to close up 3%, as the stock continued its trend of choppy trading following the toy maker's better-than-expected earnings report from last week.
So what
Investors seemingly can't quite decide what to make of Mattel's quarter. The stock climbed as much as 10.8% early Friday before giving all of those gains back before the close after the company reported a net loss of $0.53 per share on revenue of $689.2 million. Analysts had expected a net loss of $0.56 per share on revenue of $645 million.
Mattel saw solid growth from its Barbie and Hot Wheels lines, but Fisher-Price and Thomas & Friends both posted declines.
Now what
It's been a wild ride of late for Mattel. The company's stock dropped 6% on April 22 after short-seller Bronte Capital criticized management capital allocation decisions and said the company "will probably go bust." The shares made most of that back the next day, but are still down 67% since early 2014.
The quarterly earnings provided reason to hope the business is improving, with Chairman and CEO Ynon Kreiz on a call with analysts saying that "positive momentum exiting 2018 has continued and is reflected in our operating results." But despite the progress, management has yet to boost its full-year guidance.
There's enough there to provide a glimmer of optimism, but for now the market is not ready to fully commit to the turnaround.
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