Call her backseat Barbie.
Sales growth of the classic blonde doll is failing to keep pace with the chubby-faced American Girl dolls and its Monster High line depicting the teen descendants of famous monsters as Mattel topped Wall Street’s profit estimates for the third quarter.
The world’s largest toy company also it would pay a cash dividend of 36 cents a share, bringing the total for the year up 16 percent from the 2012 payout.
Mattel said third-quarter net income rose to $422.8 million, or $1.21 a share, from $365.9 million, or $1.04 a share, a year earlier.
Sales rose 6 percent to $2.21 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $2.17 billion.
Barbie sales increased 3 percent, but the American Girl brand was up 20 percent and “other girls’ brands,” which include the Monster High dolls, jumped 28 percent.