Barbie, Hot Wheels Holiday Sales Help Drive Mattel Profit Up 25%
Mattel Inc. said Wednesday its fourth-quarter profit rose 25% on higher holiday sales of its Barbie dolls, Hot Wheels cars and Fisher-Price and Disney licensed toys.
The world’s largest toy maker also said its directors declared a 5-for-4 split of its common stock and increased its share-buyback program, authorizing the repurchase of an average of 7 million shares a year.
Net income rose to $112.0 million, or 50 cents a share, from profit from operations of $89.7 million, or 39 cents, in the year-ago period. A restructuring charge of $46.8 million, or 20 cents a share, resulted in net income of $42.9 million, or 19 cents, in the year-earlier period.
Earnings for El Segundo-based Mattel, which on Friday abandoned plans to buy rival toy maker Hasbro Inc. for $5.2 billion, matched the average estimate by analysts on Wall Street.
The stock split and larger share buyback program reflect the company’s optimism about its product line for 1996 as next week’s American International Toy Fair trade show in New York approaches, analysts said.
*
Sears, Roebuck & Co. reported a 28% increase in fourth-quarter earnings, spurred by strong sales of clothing and electronics.
Sears, one of the nation’s largest retailers, said it had net income of $455 million, or $1.13 a share, compared with profit from continuing operations of $356 million, or 90 cents, a year ago.
The suburban Chicago-based company was expected to earn $1.15 a share.
In the year-ago quarter, income of $134 million, or 34 cents a share, from discontinued operations and $195 million, or 50 cents, for the early repayment of debt, resulted in net income of $685 million, or $1.74.
*
Century City-based Northrop Grumman Corp. posted lower-than-expected profit for the fourth quarter, hurt by fewer deliveries of the military contractor’s B-2 stealth bomber.
Net income was $58 million, or $1.17 a share. In 1994’s final quarter, the company had a loss of $121 million, or $2.45, after taking $324 million in pretax charges for an accounting change and asset sales.
Per-share results fell short of the average forecast of $1.29.
*
Aetna Life & Casualty Co. reported an 8.3% decline in fourth-quarter earnings from continuing operations and took a $218.1 million charge for asbestos cleanup claims in a unit it plans to sell.
The largest publicly traded U.S. life insurer said profits excluding its property and casualty unit fell to $118.6 million, or $1.03 share, from $129.3 million, or $1.15, a year earlier.
Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna agreed in November to sell its property and casualty unit to New York-based Travelers Group Inc. for $4 billion, which marks the latest step in a restructuring begun in 1990.
The charge won’t affect the value of the property and casualty sale.
*
At a Glance:
Black & Decker Corp. said that profit nearly doubled in the fourth quarter, rising to $120 million, or $1.26 a share, compared with $60.5 million, or 65 cents a share, a year earlier. The tool and home appliance company also said it was raising its dividend on common stock by 20%. . . . Playtex Products Inc. said it posted a fourth-quarter loss of $900,000, or 2 cents a share.
