The Energon Pub

Hasbro has been making a lot of financial news lately. A large part of that has to do with the upcoming Transformers Movie and the other summer block buster films. As a result, stock analyst Sean McGowan of Wedbush Morgan Securities, has raised the cost of Hasbro's price target to $32 from $29, and lifted the earnings-per-share estimates to $1.75 from $1.50 for both 2007 and 2008. To read the entire article click here.

So does this mean we will have to shell out more $ for new transformers?

I do not thinks so.

Sounds good if you own stock in Hasbro, I think.

Damn, where's a business major when you need one...

Basically, it means this:

According to this analyst, Hasbro stock has had a price target of $29 - meaning, it should be around $29, thus buy if it's lower, sell if it's higher. That price target has been raised to $32. This means that in his opinion, Hasbro stock is $3 more valuable (per share) than it previously was, in his estimation.

As for the second number, earnings-per-share, that refers to the total projected earnings for Hasbro over a given time period (usually 1-2 years) divided by the total number of shares. Hence, Hasbro is expected to make more money per share in the future than it has in the past.

What does this mean to the general consumer? Hasbro is expected to draw in more profit in the next year or so. Perhaps that means they will use that profit wisely, invest in R&D, and provide new and exciting things to us. Perhaps it means they'll squander it on fruitless projects like "Barbie Transformers", where Barbie's new pink convertible turns into Optimus Prime.

Basically, unless you're a stockbroker, this news is mostly irrelevant. And, it should also be taken with a grain of salt... this is one accounting firm's rating for Hasbro. One of many - and not all of the firm's ratings are always positive. Most of them say Hasbro is overperforming the industry (good for now, but it makes Hasbro a poor choice for buyers), and is generally rated as "don't buy it right now. If you have it, it might be time to sell soon."

I know you meant it as a joke... but it would be so funny to see a Barbie car turn into Optimus Prime... (heck, Hot Rod is basically pink in the movie... and this would be a good excuse to make an Arcee toy! lol)

I would say something about Barbie being a Mattel product and Hasbro getting sued impacting on their profit projections, but I won't bother.

I'm not surprised Hasbro's stock is being revalued higher. They're expected to have two highly successful (Spider-man III and TF) and two moderately successful (Ghost Rider and FF2) films coming out this year based on licenses they make toys for, and in the case of TF a license they own outright. Off the back of that alone they're looking at serious cash, without the Star Wars 30th anniversary stuff, MLP and their wide range of board games factored in.

-Nick