The Worst Looks To Be Over For $MAT

MAT is trading higher after delivering strong Q3 earnings and putting its accounting issue behind it. Here are the highlights from Q3:

Dolls sales were up 5% during the quarter off a double-digit jump in the Barbie business, while the vehicles category saw a 13% gain off a stellar quarter for Hot Wheels.

The company's adjusted gross margin rate improved 390 bps to 46.9% of sales to smash the consensus estimate of 42.6%.

Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT): Q3 Non-GAAP EPS of $0.26 beats by $0.07; GAAP EPS of $0.20 beats by $0.02.

Revenue of 1.48B (+2.8% Y/Y) beats by 40M.

On the accounting issue:

The positive news from Mattel is that the accounting investigation didn't find any fraud and the company is now free to go back to the debt market. During the earnings call, Mattel stated that it intends to refinance 250M worth of senior notes in a move that should lower costs.

As always, trade with caution and use protective stops.

Good luck to all!