You Don't Know Hasbro

Like its own line of Transformers, there's more to Hasbro (NYSE:HAS) than meets the eye. The company pulled off a monster second quarter. Net revenues soared 31% higher to $691.4 million. Earnings more than tripled to $0.24 per share before a warrant buyback-related charge. Wall Street was expecting a profit of just $0.18 per share on a 23% top line uptick.

Clearly, a lot of factors are working in the company's favor. Its five-year licensing deal with Marvel (NYSE:MVL) kicked in this year, and it certainly helps that the latest installments in the Spider-Man and Fantastic Four franchises hit the big screen during the quarter.

Then we had the box-office success of Transformers. That's an important win for Hasbro, because it pays out a much smaller royalty rate there than it does on third-party deals such as those with Marvel and the Star Wars franchise.

Shipments of Transformers toys are picking up in the current quarter, setting the perfect tone for Hasbro as a big winner in the upcoming 2007 holiday shopping season.

Hasbro has had a great start to 2007. The company also blew analysts away with its first-quarter report three months ago. It expects year-over-year growth in the seasonally potent second half of the year, though clearly not as heady as investors have seen through the first six months.

The encouraging aspect of all this growth is that the company is also working off fatter margins. Revenues were up 24% in North America and 49% elsewhere, but operating profits grew even faster. That is pretty impressive, especially since the 37% boost in domestic operating profits came despite a $10.4 million hit over its Easy-Bake Oven recall.

Hasbro's got the hot toys right now. It is doing better than rival Mattel (NYSE:MAT) at the moment. It is also growing more quickly than some of the smaller, nimbler toymakers such as Jakks Pacific (NASDAQ:JAKK) and RC2 (NASDAQ:RCRC).

The overall strength in the industry is good to see. Instead of watching retailers stock up on toys in the third and fourth quarters in anticipation of the holidays, bellwethers such as Hasbro are doing just fine in what has traditionally been the sleepy half of the year.

So thank you, Optimus Prime. You have managed to help transform the toy industry into something even bigger and more powerful. 

Hasbro and Marvel are recommendations for Motley Fool Stock Advisor subscribers. RC2 is a Motley Fool Hidden Gems pick. Free trials are available for both newsletter services, just so that you too won't get humbled by surprising growth stocks and turnaround situations.

Longtime Fool contributor Rick Munarriz wonders who will have the hot toys for the 2007 holiday season. He does not own shares in any of the companies in this story. He is also part of the Rule Breakers newsletter research team, seeking out tomorrow's ultimate growth stocks a day early. The Fool has a disclosure policy, batteries not included.