Hasbro, Inc. (NASDAQ:HAS) Q1 2024 Earnings Call Transcript

Chris Cocks: Yes, I’ll start, and then I’ll turn it over to Gina. So I’ll maybe do a little bit of semantics and then turn it over to Gina to go into the details of your question, Arpiné. I think what you’re seeing in Q1 is kind of our overall strategic thesis playing out, which I think will play out knock on wood through the rest of the year and for the foreseeable future. And I think that is as Hasbro games, IP and toy company effectively in that order. And I think our margins will start to shape around those style of industries, and those style of TAMs and growth opportunities. And so what you’re seeing in Q1 is, wow, when you have a healthy games business, when you have great IP like we have and great partners that you can leverage it through and you start to get your act together on your cost structure and your operational efficiency in your underlying toy business and start to address kind of some of the marketing deficiencies you have, good things happen.

Gina Goetter: And when you kind of lateral [ph] is that up with how it will play out by quarter. So if you kind of look at the pieces in Q1 that mix and that as we continue to shift into gaming and into digital is going to continue to be a tailwind for us as we move through the balance of the year. The fact that supply chain productivity is going to more than offset inflation, that trend is going to continue as we move throughout the year. And then operating expenses and all of the work that we’re doing on purchase cost reduction, people cost reduction, that benefit will continue to impact us as we move throughout the year. So the one quarter that we’ll just have to watch is Q3 because of how strong it was in Q3 of 2023. So it’s still going to be a very healthy margin, but there was just so much positivity last year at that time that there could be a slight dip year-over-year but all of that, the underpinnings of the cost structure that is going to hold and carry with us for the year.

Chris Cocks: Q3 is going to be the big Baldur’s Gate 3 launch time.

Gina Goetter: And the Monopoly Go! started to hit [Multiple Speakers] started to hit for Monopoly Go!.

Arpiné Kocharyan: Right. And that’s a great segue to my — for the last question. Sorry for three questions. You just talked about digital coming in flat. And I think that’s unchanged versus what you said last time. Everything we’ve been able to track on this shows that there could be upside to that given how strong Monopoly Go! has been. Why not raise that guidance today and could you talk about sort of your visibility on that because it’s clearly — at least seasonally, it’s not a toy business, right, it’s sort of digital games where you probably have a little bit more to say in terms of visibility?

Gina Goetter: Yes. And the short answer is it’s just really too early in the year to call it out. But to your point, the trends are favorable if they continue to play out in the way that everyone is watching and some of the other variables that are out of our control kind of break our way and become positive contributors. We absolutely did see that there could be upside. We just want to watch it play out here as we move through Q2 before we officially take guidance up for it.

Chris Cocks: The challenge within our P&A is it’s really a comp one. And so we just need more time.

Arpiné Kocharyan: Alright. Thank you very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our question comes from the line of Christopher Horvers with J.P. Morgan. Please proceed with your question.

Christopher Horvers: Thanks and good morning. So I just want to follow up on the corporate line item. It was $45 million, you said roughly half of it was stock comp and that benefit does not sustain. What’s the other half of that and does that continue? Yes.

Gina Goetter: It is the material amount of money. Yes, the other half is all due to the operational excellence program. And I would think of it as a timing element of where it sits. So it’s real money. It’s purchase cost savings, it’s people cost savings. And sometimes within the quarters in the year, it just settles out in corporate. As we move through the balance of the year, that’s going to be allocated back. That favorability will be allocated back to the two segments of CP and Wizard. So that will kind of flush its way through. It’s just a timing element of where it sat at the end of Q1. Last year, in the corporate P&L, I believe it was roughly $20 million annually of operating profit. I would expect maybe a little bit more just given that stock comp adjustment, but that’s how you should think about Q1. Half of it was the stock comp, half of it was just some timing stuff that will get flushed back through the segments.

Christopher Horvers: And did you say that the nonrepeating portion was $0.10 or is that half because if you do have, it’s a bigger number than $0.10?

Gina Goetter: No, it’s about $0.10 of earnings per share. Yes, it was that.

Chris Cocks: About half of 45, which translates to around $0.10 a share.

Christopher Horvers: Okay. Okay. I got it. And I guess to try to build on that last question. I guess if you — like if Monopoly Go! does continue at the current pacing, correct me if I’m wrong, but I think you’re looking at like maybe $50 million to $70 million in the back half from Monopoly Go! sort of any comments on what it could be if what you see today continues, could it be 2x that?

Chris Cocks: I don’t think we’re prepared to give you a sizing on it. As Gina said, if current revenue trends and the current advertising spend to revenue continues it will be quite favorable for us. And we’d likely exceed the minimum guarantee within Q2.

Christopher Horvers: Got it, thanks very much.

Operator: Thank you. Our question comes from the line of Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs. Please proceed with your question.