(Reuters) - Mattel Inc, the No.1 toymaker, posted quarterly results that breezed past market estimates, helped by strong demand for its core brands Barbie and American Girl.
The results come just weeks after smaller rivals Hasbro Inc and LeapFrog Enterprises Inc warned sales slowed late in the biggest selling season of the year.
Fourth-quarter net profit was $325.2 million, or 89 cents a share, compared with $328.4 million, or 89 cents a share, a year ago.
Mattel, which announced the departure of the president of Mattel Brands, Neil Friedman, last month, said Barbie and American Girl sales rose 8 percent. Fisher-Price sales remained flat while Hot Wheels was up 1 percent.
Mattel, which counts billionaire investor Carl Icahn among its investors, said sales rose 9 percent to $2.12 billion.
Analysts on average had expected a profit of 86 cents a share on revenue of $2.09 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of El Segundo, California-based Mattel, with a market value of $8.5 billion, closed at $24.15 on Tuesday on Nasdaq. They have stayed mostly flat since the company reported third-quarter results in October.
(Reporting by Dhanya Skariachan in New York and NR Sethuraman in Bangalore; Editing by Unnikrishnan Nair)
