Shares of Toyota slipped 1.5 percent Monday after the automaker reported earnings that missed analysts’ forecast as a strong yen cut into earnings.
Fourth-quarter operating profit came in at 438.59 billion yen ($3.91 billion) versus the Factset view of 483.44 billion yen ($4.31 billion). Revenue was a bright spot, as Toyota’s reported figure of 7.084 trillion yen ($63.2 billion) beat the street’s expectation of 6.837 trillion yen ($61 billion).
The company also revised its forecast for the rest of the year to reflect expected changes in the yen. They now project earnings of 1.7 trillion yen ($15.89 billion) for the year ending March.
Though sales declined in South America, Oceania, Africa and the Middle East, Toyota posted sales gains in Europe, Asia and the North America. These sales, Toyota says, came at the expense of profit margins.
« [If] you look at the industry as a whole, the overall trend is an increase in incentives… » Masayoshi Hachisuka, project general manager of Toyota’s accounting division, said in the company’s earnings call. « And by controlling incentives, we intend to strike a good balance between the number of units and profitability. »
With Monday’s declines, shares of Toyota are down more than 5 percent in the past 30 days.
