Earnings Preview: Hasbro

Hasbro (HAS) is expected to report Q3 earnings before market open Monday Oct. 20, with a conference call scheduled for 8:30 am ET.

Guidance

Analysts are looking for a profit of 86c on revenue of $1.26B. The consensus range is 73c to 94c for EPS, and revenue of $1.16B to $1.31B, according to First Call.

Analyst Views

In an October 8 client note, Needham analyst Sean McGowan said he expects "Transformers 2" to be more successful than the original movie in terms of both toy sales and box office performance. McGowan, who upgraded shares to Buy from Hold following the recent sell-off, believes commodity costs are likely to ease in 2009, but will probably remain high for the rest of this year.

Toy experts believe that between high food and gas costs and slumps in the housing and job markets, consumers are cutting their discretionary spending, which includes toys for the upcoming holiday season. Toy analyst Chris Byrne says that while the toy industry is generally resistant to recession, 2008 also has the presidential election, which he feels could distract some shoppers, and five fewer shopping days between Thanksgiving and Christmas than last year. To combat this, Hasbro has said most of its toys for the holiday season will cost less than $20.