NEW YORK (TheStreet) --Shares of Mattel Inc. are higher by 4.86% to $23.75 in mid-morning trading on Monday, following a ratings upgrade to "buy" from "neutral" at B. Riley & Co. The firm said it upgraded its rating on the toys and games maker based on its belief Mattel has an attractive risk/reward and its near peak dividend yield of 6.7%, theflyonthewall.com reports. B. Riley set a $27.25 price target on Mattel stock, up from its previous $26 price target. Additionally, on Thursday Mattel announced that it has named Chairman Christopher Sinclair as its permanent CEO effective immediately. Sinclair has been acting as interim CEO since January when Bryan Stockton abruptly resigned from the position. Mattel is looking to improve the slowing sales of its signature Barbie Doll and fisher price toys. Sales of these items have been down as kids are spending more time playing with electronic devices, according to Bloomberg. "The board and management team are focused on achieving a rapid turnaround at Mattel and we have a clear game plan for what needs to be addressed," Sinclair said in a statement released on Thursday. Separately, TheStreet Ratings team rates MATTEL INC as a Hold with a ratings score of C. TheStreet Ratings Team has this to say about their recommendation: "We rate MATTEL INC (MAT) a HOLD. The primary factors that have impacted our rating are mixed-some indicating strength, some showing weaknesses, with little evidence to justify the expectation of either a positive or negative performance for this stock relative to most other stocks. The company's strengths can be seen in multiple areas, such as its reasonable valuation levels, good cash flow from operations and largely solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. However, as a counter to these strengths, we also find weaknesses including deteriorating net income, disappointing return on equity and a generally disappointing performance in the stock itself." Highlights from the analysis by TheStreet Ratings Team goes as follows: Net operating cash flow has slightly increased to $1,032.87 million or 1.29% when compared to the same quarter last year. In addition, MATTEL INC has also modestly surpassed the industry average cash flow growth rate of 0.01%. MAT's debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71 is somewhat low overall, but it is high when compared to the industry average, implying that the management of the debt levels should be evaluated further. Despite the fact that MAT's debt-to-equity ratio is mixed in its results, the company's quick ratio of 1.90 is high and demonstrates strong liquidity. Return on equity has greatly decreased when compared to its ROE from the same quarter one year prior. This is a signal of major weakness within the corporation. Compared to other companies in the Leisure Equipment & Products industry and the overall market on the basis of return on equity, MATTEL INC has underperformed in comparison with the industry average, but has exceeded that of the S&P 500. The company, on the basis of change in net income from the same quarter one year ago, has significantly underperformed when compared to that of the S&P 500 and the Leisure Equipment & Products industry. The net income has significantly decreased by 59.4% when compared to the same quarter one year ago, falling from $369.25 million to $149.93 million. You can view the full analysis from the report here: MAT Ratings Report Must Read: Warren Buffett's Top 25 Stocks for 2015
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