Hasbro stock volatile this week after Bank of America analysis
Polygon and CNBC along with others, reported on Monday on a drop in Hasbro's stock price, after a Bank of America Analyst double downgraded it’s position from "buy" to "underperform". Hasbro, of course, is the publisher of games such as Monopoly is also the parent company of both Avalon Hill (Betrayal at House on the Hill, Axis and Allies, etc) and Wizards of the Coast (Magic the Gathering and Dungeons & Dragons). The stock continued its downwards trend since September and after 3rd quarter, reporting of a 15% drop in earnings and expectation of similar 4th quarters revenue.
The analyst’s primary concern was that "Hasbro has been overproducing Magic cards, which has propped up Hasbro’s recent results, but is destroying the long-term value of the brand”. He gave an example of Magic the Gathering 4 pack 30th anniversary set, for almost one thousand dollars. which reprinted cards that WotC promised never to be reprinted, though not in a tournament-legal form.
Rich Stein, a Magic expert on the Hipsters of the Coast gaming community site disputed the analyst’s “deep dive” into Magic, saying it was questionable, and focused primarily on secondary market of Magic cards, ignored the online Magic Arena game, and focused on a few brick and mortar big box stores, ignoring online distribution .
As of Friday closing Hasbro was down 6% of a week ago, but up 6.7% from it's low earlier this week.
