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Analysts at Needham & Company on Thursday offered some bullish commentary on toy maker Mattel, Inc. ( MAT ) ahead of its upcoming earnings report.

The firm maintained its "Buy" rating on MAT as well as its $35 price target, which suggests a 4% upside to the stock's Wednesday closing price of $33.68.

A Needham analyst commented, "Mattel is set to report 1Q'12 results on Monday, April 16th before the open. We expect the company to report a 3.2% increase in sales, and EPS of $0.06 vs. $0.05 last year. We believe a positive surprise is possible, since we are currently modeling flat-to-slightly down sales of Mattel Brands in the US, and believe sales of brands such as Barbie and Monsters are strong. The shares have been quite strong lately (rising over 18% year to date [vs roughly 7% for the S&P 500], and nearly 39% since last August), and are now close to our target price."

Mattel shares were unchanged in premarket trading Thursday.

The Bottom Line
We have been recommending shares of Mattel ( MAT ) since Jan.31, 2012, when the stock was trading at $29.53. The company has a 3.68% dividend yield, based on last night's closing stock price of $33.68.

Mattel, Inc. ( MAT ) is a "Recommended" dividend stock, holding a Dividend.com DARS™ Rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Be sure to visit our complete recommended list of the Best Dividend Stocks , as well as a detailed explanation of our ratings system here .

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