TYO:543A

Toyota Motor's Quarterly Attributable Profit Surges 76%, Plans 1 Trillion Yen Buyback

Toyota Motor (TYO:7203) disclosed plans to buy back up to 1 trillion yen worth of shares after reporting a double-digit jump in profit in the fiscal first quarter despite booking lower sales volume.Attributable net income in the quarter ended June 30 jumped 75.6% year over year to 1.477 trillion yen from 841.3 billion yen a year earlier, according to a press release on Tuesday.Earnings per share rose to 120.69 yen from 64.56 yen as Toyota ramped up share buybacks to boost shareholder returns. The value of repurchased shares in the fiscal first quarter rose to 3.657 trillion yen, significantly up from 39.9 billion yen a year earlier.This reduced Toyota's average number of outstanding shares to 12.2 billion in the current reporting period versus 13 billion shares a year prior.Operating income, however, fell 8.8% to 1.063 trillion yen from 1.166 trillion yen, which the Japanese automaker attributed to foreign exchange effects, cost reductions and expanded value chain profits. It also cited higher sales of its hybrid electric vehicles.Overall sales rose 10.4% to 13.53 trillion yen from 12.25 trillion yen.Toyota sold a total of 2.40 million vehicles in the three-month period, almost flat from 2.41 million vehicles sold in the same period a year earlier.The company noted that consolidated vehicle sales in the fiscal first quarter fell by 16,000 units year over year due to the fallout from the Middle East conflict and the exclusion of Hino from its sales.Hino was delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on March 30 after it merged with Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corp. to form a new joint holding entity called Archion Corp. (TYO:543A).Toyota raised its full-year earnings forecast upward for the current fiscal year ending March 31, 2027. It now expects attributable net income to fall 15.5% year over year to 3.25 trillion yen, up from the previous forecast of a 22% drop to 3 trillion yen, while net sales are predicted to grow 6.5% to 54 trillion yen, also up from the prior outlook of a 0.6% increase.The company kept its full-year dividend forecast unchanged at 100 yen per share.Toyota's shares fell nearly 2% in recent trade in Tokyo.