Citigroup Reiterates Neutral Rating on Hasbro; Raises PT

Citigroup is out with a research report this afternoon, where it reiterates its Neutral rating on Hasbro (NYSE: HAS); it has a $36.00 price target on the stock, up from $35.00. The Citigroup analysts cited the company's recent Q3 earnings, which missed estimates on the top and bottom lines. HAS reported Q3 sales of $1.38 billion and EPS of $1.28; the Street was at $1.45 billion and $1.30 per share, respectively. Hasbro was optimistic about 2011, mentioning that, beginning 4Q, they expect significant sales and EPS growth in '11 driven by: a solid line-up of toys and games for the holiday are only recently hitting retail shelves, POS trends, their U.S. retail inventories are down YOY. As for valuation, the analysts remarked, “Given updated trends, we're lowering our '11-'13 EPS by 4c, 3c, and 3c each. Raising tgt px by $1 as we roll fwd our valuation.”