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Mattel Inc. (MAT) on Friday reported an 82% jump in second-quarter earnings as cost cutting offset worse-than-expected sales that reflected consumers' spending cuts and retailers' efforts to curb their inventories.

Chairman and Chief Executive Robert A. Eckert said results met the company's expectations amid the recession and a lack of toys tied to summer movies and TV shows.

During a conference call, he also said retailer de-stocking and the negative effects of foreign-currency exchange will continue to pressure Mattel's sales during the balance of the year.

"Retailers are still very cautious on their inventory positions, as are we," Eckert said.

The world's largest toy maker reported a profit of $21.5 million, or 6 cents a share, up from $11.8 million, or 3 cents a share, a year earlier. Revenue fell 19% to $898.2 million, with currency fluctuations accounting for five percentage points of the decline.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters most recently were looking for break-even results on revenue of $970 million.

The company doesn't typically provide financial guidance, but executives said they are on track to generate $90 million to $100 million of net cost savings in 2009 and $180 million to $200 million in savings by the end of 2010. And one advantage Mattel has heading into the critical holiday season that it didn't have a year ago is that the difficult environment won't come as a surprise, Eckert said.

"It was a real scramble last year and we've all - both retailers and manufacturers - had time to plan and respond this year, and we should be relatively better off because of that," he said.

Mattel shares recently traded up $1.06, or 6.6%, at $17.25. Heading into Friday's report, the stock is up 56% since hitting a nine-year low in March.

Shares of other toy makers were mixed. Shares of Hasbro Inc. (HAS), which reports earnings Monday, were up 2.1% and RC2 Corp. (RCRC) shares were 2.6% higher. Shares of Jakks Pacific Inc. (JAKK) fell 0.1% to $12.49.

In Mattel's core business, which includes entertainment-related toys and major brands, sales fell 25% from last year, when the company benefited from toys tied to Batman, Kung Fu Panda and High School Musical. That was worse than the 13% drop Barclays Capital had forecast.

Hasbro is producing toys associated with what are expected to be the best movies for toy tie-ins this summer, namely Transformers and G.I. Joe. That may make its entertainment-heavy lineup less negatively affected by retailers' desire to reduce inventories, Needham & Co. analyst Sean McGowan told clients.

Mattel is coming off a first-quarter loss and last year's miserable holiday sales season. In response, the El Segundo, Calif., company has been cutting costs and implemented price hikes at the start of 2009.

Quarterly gross margin rose to 45.2% from 44.5% amid falling costs, a 23% cut in marketing costs and other administrative expense cuts.

International sales fell 26%, with exchange rates accounting for 10 percentage points of the decline. Executives said economic contraction is more pronounced in countries outside the U.S., with many retailers either reluctant to take inventory or Mattel reluctant to ship to them because of credit concerns.

Sales dropped 12% in North America despite double-digit growth in retail sell-through of Barbie and Mattel's belief that it picked up a little market-share in the toy industry during the first half.

Worldwide Barbie sales declined 15%, mostly on international weakness while the Matchbox, Hot Wheels and Tyco R/C businesses had a 10% drop. Fisher-Price gross sales fell 13%, with particular weakness among bigger ticket products such as monitors and bouncy chairs.

-By Mary Ellen Lloyd and Tess Stynes, Dow Jones Newswires, 704-948-9145; maryellen.lloyd@dowjones.com