Piper Jaffray analyst Stephanie Wissink said yesterday that her channel checks through post-Christmas have continued to point to below plan sales across the toy category. She believes holiday toy sales are looking to be flat/down low-single-digits, at best. Stock weakness across toys appears to be "fairly factoring in weakness in Q4 and potential inventory correction measures," Wissink wrote to investors. She sees some risk to 2017 consensus estimates and notes that if she had to pick, she'd prefer shares of Hasbro (HAS) in the space. The analyst has a Neutral rating on Hasbro along with JAKKS Pacific (JAKK) and Mattel (MAT).

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BofA analyst Alexander Perry raised the firm's price target on Mattel to $26 from $25 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares after the company reported Q1 losses that were ahead of the firm's forecast on significant gross margin upside. Following the report, the firm is raising its calendar 2024 EPS forecast to $1.44 from $1.40, which reflects a 2% sales increase in Q2 as Mattel laps channel destocking from last year, a 3% decline in sales in Q3 given tough Barbie comps, and relatively flat Q4 sales given expected share gains and shelf expansion for key brands at retail through holiday.