Investing.com -- Shares in Mattel Inc (O:MAT) surged more than 5% in after-hours trading, after one of the world's largest toy companies posted its first gain in quarterly revenues in nearly three years, amid resurgent holiday sales among its renowned Barbie brand.
During Mattel's fourth quarter of fiscal year 2015, the company reported earnings of $215.2 million or 0.63 per share, up from $149.9 million or 0.44 per share during the same period a year earlier. Mattel also finished with revenues of $2 billion for the three-month period, up 0.3% on an annual basis. The company topped analysts' forecasts of earnings per share of 0.61 on revenue of $1.91 billion.
Barbie sales soared 8% on a constant currency basis and 1% overall, rebounding sharply from declines of more than 10% 12 months earlier. It came days after the roll-out of a new Barbie line, which will feature dolls in tall, petite and curvy variations. In June, Mattel expanded its Barbie brand by broadening the types of skin tones, hair styles and eye colors offered on shelves worldwide.
Within the company, Mattel's Fisher-Price division saw is gross sales worldwide increase 13% in constant currency, and 8% overall. Worldwide sales for Hot Wheels, meanwhile jumped 28% in constant currency, and 18% overall.
"We are encouraged by our results in the quarter and for the year, which reflect solid progress on a number of important fronts," Mattel CEO Christopher Sinclair said in a statement. "We achieved our goal of stabilizing the business, with improved gross sales both in the quarter and for the full year."
Sinclair, a former senior executive at PepsiCo (N:PEP)., inherited the monumental task of jumpstarting the fledging toy giant when he was named the company's permanent CEO last April. At the time, Mattel shares had slumped more than 40% over the previous 12 months amid disappointing Barbie and Fisher-Price sales.
"In addition, we drove significant momentum across the majority of our core brands, most of which saw stronger retail sales and shipping, and we continued to make headway in key emerging markets like China and Russia," Sinclair added. "Overall, we are pleased with our performance at this stage of our turnaround.
Shares in Mattel jumped 1.54 or 5.75% to 28.30 in after-hours.