Mattel, Inc. (MAT): Among Billionaire Mason Hawkins' Small-Cap Stocks with Huge Upside Potential
We recently published a list of . In this article, we are going to take a look at where Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) stands against other billionaire Mason Hawkins' small-cap stocks with huge upside potential.
Mason Hawkins is a prominent American investor, known for being the founder and chairman of Southeastern Asset Management. Hawkins holds a Bachelor of Arts in Finance from the University of Florida and later did his MBA in Finance from the University of Georgia. Before founding Southeastern Asset Management, the billionaire gained experience as a Director of Research at Atlantic National Bank and First Tennessee Investment Management. There he developed his value investment strategy and has since been known for his discipline in value investing. His fund Southeastern Asset Management also holds the same reputation, which can be witnessed through his concentrated portfolio of around 40 to 50 stocks. Southeastern Asset Management services 47 clients at the moment, with $5,271,901,660 as assets under management as of March 2024.
Value investment is an investment strategy that employs buying stocks of well-managed and quality companies at prices significantly below their intrinsic value. The core of Hawkins' strategy is to purchase equities when their market price is no more than 60% of the firm's appraisal of their intrinsic value. Value investors believe that the market overreacts to economic news, which leads to movement in stock prices, however, this news does not affect the long-term fundamentals of a company. Therefore, investors like Mason Hawkins do not follow the herd and use financial research and analysis to find quality companies. Value investors are also known for holding companies for a long term, but also actively ferret out stock that the market is underestimating.
Hawkins' disciplined and research-based investment strategy has earned him widespread recognition. He achieved Investor's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2005 and was also named Domestic Equity Fund Manager of the Year by Morningstar in 2006.
Under the current market condition, Hawkins' value investment strategy has led Southeastern Asset Management's attention towards small-cap stocks. While the small-cap stocks have largely underperformed the market when compared to their large-cap counterparts. However, according to Francis Gannon, Co-Chief Investment Officer at Royce Investment Partners, small-caps are attractively priced for long-term investment opportunities. Gannon's investment advice aligns with Hawkins's strategy, as he suggests investing in quality small-cap companies with strong fundamentals, low debt, established long-term earnings, and significant upside potential.
To compile the list of billionaire Mason Hawkins' 10 small-cap stocks with huge upside potential, we sifted through 13F filings of Southeastern Asset Management, from Insider Monkey. From these filings, we checked each stock's upside potential from CNN and ranked the stocks in ascending order of the upside potential. We have also added the stake Southeastern Asset Management holds in each company and the hedge fund sentiment around each stock. Please note that the data was recorded on April 28, 2025. Also note that for this article we have defined small-cap companies as those with a market capitalization between $1 billion to $10 billion.
Why are we interested in the stocks that hedge funds pile into? The reason is simple: our research has shown that we can outperform the market by imitating the top stock picks of the best hedge funds. Our quarterly newsletter's strategy selects 14 small-cap and large-cap stocks every quarter and has returned 373.4% since May 2014, beating its benchmark by 218 percentage points ().
A child with a wide smile playing with the latest interactive toy.
Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) is an international toy and family entertainment company. It operates through two main segments including the North American segment which covers the United States and Canada, and the International segment which covers global markets. The company has a range of popular toy brands including Barbie, Hot Wheels, UNO, and more.
On April 14, the company announced renewing its global partnership with WWE, which is an international wrestling entertainment brand. The renewal means that Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) can continue to design, manufacture, and sell WWE-themed toys and action figures. In addition, the company posted growth during the fiscal fourth quarter of 2024. Its net sales grew 2% year-over-year to reach $1.64 billion, with margins at 50.7%, reflecting a 190 basis points increase.
Ariel Appreciation Fund mentioned Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) in its Q1 2025 investor letter, stating that the company remains undervalued considering the expected buyback activity. Here's what the fund said about the company.
'Several stocks in the portfolio delivered solid returns in the quarter. Toy manufacturer Mattel, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAT) advanced over the quarter, following strong earnings results highlighted by solid sales growth, margin expansion and robust free cash flow generation. Management also provided full year 2025 1The 'Magnificent Seven' are the largest stocks in the S&P 500 Index driving market performance: Apple Inc. (AAPL), Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN), Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL), Meta Platforms Inc. (META), Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), NVIDIA Corp. (NVDA) and Tesla, Inc. (TSLA). guidance ahead of Wall Street expectations. With buyback activity expected to accelerate and the company poised to grow market share in 2025, we believe shares remain undervalued at current levels. Attractive opportunities to exploit its intellectual property through future film and TV projects only heighten our conviction.'
Overall, MAT ranks 2nd on our list of billionaire Mason Hawkins' small-cap stocks with huge upside potential. While we acknowledge the potential of MAT as an investment, our conviction lies in the belief that AI stocks hold greater promise for delivering higher returns and doing so within a shorter time frame. There is an AI stock that went up since the beginning of 2025, while popular AI stocks lost around 25%. If you are looking for an AI stock that is more promising than MAT but that trades at less than 5 times its earnings, check out our report about this .
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Disclosure: None. This article is originally published at .
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