Toyota posts fivefold jump in quarterly profit

PanARMENIAN.Net - Toyota Motor Corp. reported a more than fivefold jump in its quarterly profit Tuesday, Feb 3, and raised its earnings forecast, crediting a weak yen and strong sales.

According to the Associated Press, Toyota's profit for the October-December quarter totaled a better-than-expected 525.4 billion yen ($5.2 billion), up dramatically from 99.9 billion yen a year earlier. Quarterly sales jumped 24 percent to 6.585 trillion yen ($64.2 billion).

Analysts polled by FactSet had expected a 437 billion yen ($4.3 billion) quarterly profit.

The world's top selling automaker raised its profit and sales forecasts for the fiscal year ending March.

The maker of the Prius hybrid, Lexus luxury models and the Camry sedan now projects a fiscal year profit of 1.9 trillion yen ($18.8 billion), a gain of 49 percent from its profit in the fiscal year that ended March 31, 2013. Its previous annual profit forecast was 1.67 trillion yen ($16.5 billion).

"Our upwardly revised forecast is due to progress in our recent profit improvement activities through cost reduction and marketing efforts, in addition to the change in our assumption of foreign exchange rates," Managing Officer Takuo Sasaki said in a statement.

Toyota had previously expected the dollar to average 81 yen, but it's now expecting 100 yen. The dollar was trading at about 101 yen Tuesday. A weak yen is beneficial for Japanese exporters such as Toyota by boosting the value of its overseas sales.