NEW YORK, May 15 (Reuters) - Barington Capital Group,

which lost a high-profile board fight at Matthews International ( MATW )

this year, increased its holding in the casket maker

but also liquidated its bet on toymaker Mattel ( MAT ) where it

was also pushing for changes, a new filing shows.

The so-called 13-F filing shows that Barington, which fought

for three seats on the Matthews' board, increased the size of

its investment by roughly 40% to 798,617 shares during the first

three months of the year.

Barington criticized the company's underperformance and

pressed it to replace its chief executive and consider some

divestments, but it lost the proxy fight in late February when

investors re-elected all of management's candidates.

However, rather than sell some or all of the shares,

something that often happens when investors lose proxy battles,

Barington did the opposite and bought more Matthews shares. The

stock price has fallen 23% this year.

A representative for Barington did not immediately respond

to a request for comment.

Also during the first quarter, Barington sold out of its

investment in Mattel ( MAT ) after having pushed the company to consider

selling its Fisher-Price and American Girl units, buying back

more stock and rethinking its compensation plans, all to help

push the stock price higher.

By the end of March, Barington had sold its remaining

525,100 shares to exit the position. It had already sold 50,000

shares during the fourth quarter of 2024, filings show.

Mattel ( MAT ), which owns Barbie and Matchbox brands, said earlier

in May that it plans to raise prices on some toys to offset the

impact of tariffs on Chinese imports. It also said that it is

keeping its $600 million share repurchase target for this year.

The 13-F filings, which detail what investment firms owned

in U.S. stocks at the end of the previous quarter, are

backward-looking but are closely watched for indications of

investment trends.