TOKYO, May 11 (BestGrowthStock) – Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T: ) beat
forecasts with a fourth-quarter profit (Read more your timing to make a profit.) on Tuesday as it cut
costs and its aggressive sales incentives swiftly drew U.S.
customers back to showrooms after its worst recall crisis.
Toyota forecast a smaller-than-expected 90 percent rise in
operating profit for the year to end-March 2011, however, in a
sign of lingering caution as the world’s biggest automaker
faces rising raw material prices and questions over demand as
government subsidies fade.
Toyota had flagged a small operating loss for last year,
estimating a $2 billion hit from lost sales from the damage to
its brand and the cost of recalling more than 8 million
vehicles worldwide, mostly due to problems of unintended
acceleration.
Instead, it booked an operating profit of 95.3 billion yen
($1 billion) in January-March, marking a third straight
quarterly profit and a swing from the 682.5 billion yen loss a
year earlier. The result beat a loss estimate of 6.25 billion
yen in a survey of 21 brokerages by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
It made a quarterly net profit of 112.2 billion yen,
against a loss of 765.8 billion yen a year ago.
Annual operating profit came to 147.5 billion yen, bouncing
back from a loss of 461 billion yen in 2008/09.
For the 2010/11 business year, Toyota projected an
operating profit of 280 billion yen, far more conservative than
the consensus market forecast of 546 billion yen.
Rivals such as Honda Motor Co (7267.T: ) have also given
cautious guidance citing uncertainty over raw materials prices
still under negotiation with suppliers. Executives have also
said it was difficult to get a read on car sales after
government subsidies to stimulate demand end in Japan and other
markets.
Shares in Toyota have lost about 10 percent in the year to
date, lagging a near 5 percent fall in Tokyo’s transport sector
subindex (.ITEQP.T: ) over the same period.
Stock Basics
(Reporting by Chang-Ran Kim; Editing by Lincoln Feast)
Toyota posts Q4 profit, cautious on 2010/11
