Toyota Q4 profit leaps 35%, beats estimates; shares jump

Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) on Wednesday posted a 35% rise in fourth-quarter operating profit, helped by the weak yen boosting the value of overseas sales and higher output volumes that outweighed the impact of surging materials costs.

The world’s largest automaker by sales said operating profit for the three months through March totalled 626.9 billion yen ($4.64 billion), easily beating the average 553.46 billion yen profit estimated by 10 analysts, according to Refinitiv data.

In the same period a year ago, operating profit was 463.86 billion yen.

In the first earnings presentation led by new CEO Koji Sato, who took the top job last month, Toyota forecast operating profit will rise about 10% to 3.0 trillion yen this business year, in line with analysts’ average forecast of 3.02 trillion yen.

Toyota shares, which were nearly flat just before the release of the earnings, surged immediately after and were up 2.2% at 1,958 yen by 0500 GMT.

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