Jakks Pacific Reports 2005 Financials

Jakks Pacific, a maker of toys and the Plug In and Play TV Games, has reported its fourth-quarter and full-year financial information for 2005. The company saw a decrease in fourth-quarter earnings, with revenue of only $166.3 million compared to Q4 2004's $184.8 million. Profit for the quarter also fell, due to the repatriation of undistributed earnings, leading to a total of $9 million for the quarter, compared to the same period's $10.5 million in 2004. For the full year, the picture was better, as both net sales and profit increased from the 2004 fiscal year. Sales were up 15.2% to $661.5 million, an improvement on 2004's $574.3 million, and profits were up 45% to $63.5 million, an increase over 2004's $43.6 million. Despite the full-year performance, the fourth-quarter setback caused the company's share prices to fall by 1.24%, to $23.80 per share. "We are very pleased with our performance for the full year 2005," said Jakks Pacific CEO Jack Friedman. "Our net sales grew 15% over 2004 with our success largely attributable to our brand management skills, the strong performance of our acquired lines, our ability to consistently expand and reinvent our diverse portfolio of licensed and non-licensed products and our continued strong relations with our licensors and retailers. The Company enters 2006 with the most diversified product line in our history and we expect to again achieve record revenue and earnings in 2006." "Including CDI, we expect to increase net sales to approximately $825 million in 2006, with net income of $82 million, or $2.63 per diluted share," said Friedman. "This forecast anticipates first quarter net sales in the range of $102 million to $110 million, and diluted earnings per share of $0.13 to $0.18, which is less than first quarter 2005 results. We anticipate more than making it up in the balance of the year with the initiatives we have in place and based on the response from the trade on our lines."