Hasbro’s Close Ties to Disney Helps Sales Hit a Record

Hasbro’s shareholders got their wish this holiday season: record-breaking sales that topped $5 billion for the first time in the toy maker’s 94-year history.

On Monday, Hasbro reported fourth-quarter sales jumped 11% to $1.63 billion while per-share profits totaled $1.64 apiece—far above the $1.5 billion and $1.28, respectively, that Wall Street analysts had anticipated. Investors cheered the news, sending Hasbro’s (HAS, +1.73%) stock up 15% in Monday morning trading. The results contrast with top rival Mattel (MAT, +0.27%), which last month reported declining sales as it lamented sharp discounting during the key holiday season.

“We finished the year strong. Hasbro ranked number one in the industry for the month of December, among the top nine markets tracked by NPD,” Chief Executive Brian Goldner told analysts during a presentation. “Importantly, the industry is growing and continued to grow through 2016.”

The strength of Hasbro’s results contradict a narrative that has formed in the retail sector in which many executives have lamented that spending during the holiday season has focused on two periods of time: the Thanksgiving/Black Friday holiday weekend and the final week before Christmas. The first three weeks of December, however, have seen a lull in retail traffic and spending that has resulted in discounting wars. But Goldner said the holiday season wasn’t different for Hasbro than other years.

Read the full story at Fortune.com