Shares in toymaker Mattel (MAT) were down around 3% in trading on 29 February after the company failed to post its 2023 annual report on time. While the exact reasons for this failure haven’t yet been confirmed, Mattel says that it’s not something that’s going to have a major effect on its financial details.
Mattel shares down as it delays posting 2023 annual report
The company described the issue as relating to certain deficiencies that it has identified and that it regards as being a “material weakness” relating to its internal controls in terms of financial reporting matters.
These reported deficiencies are around IT controls, and it confirmed that it’s working on it so that the annual report can be filed by 15 March at the latest. This means that it could occur a full month or more after its Q4 numbers were posted, which was on 7 February.
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Those Q4 figures revealed an increase of 16% in net sales, taking them to US$1,621m. However, sales for the full year were virtually unchanged at US$5,441m. Despite this, MAT’s gross margin showed a major increase, reaching 48.8% and giving a full-year gross margin of 47.5%.
The success of the Barbie movie made a significant impact on the company’s earnings. CEO Ynon Kreiz said that the movie was a “global cultural phenomenon and marked a key milestone for Mattel” at the time when its Q3 earnings were revealed. The company announced at the time that it expected the movie and the merchandising sales generated by it to be worth around US$125m in extra revenue in 2023.
