Toyota Boosts Outlook As Earnings Soar

Toyota Motor Corp. netted 258 billion yen (€2.5 billion) in the fiscal second quarter ended Sept. 30 compared with 80 billion yen (€778 million) in the same period of 2011. Revenue jumped 18% to 5.4 trillion yen (€52.3 billion).

The company attributes the improvement to a weaker yen, stronger sales and lower incentive and production expenses. Second-quarter operating income more than quadrupled to 341 billion yen ($4.2 billion).

Worldwide quarterly sales climbed 24% to 2.25 million vehicles, including the company's Daihatsu and Hino units, as vehicle inventories bounced back from the earthquake- and tsunami-battered levels a year earlier.

Toyota's second-quarter revenue in Europe was flat at 498 billion yen (€4.8 billion). Sales rose 9% to 203,000 vehicles. Operating income jumped 54% to 9 billion yen (€83 million).

Toyota boosted its previous outlook for net and operating earnings in the current fiscal year by 3% to 780 billion yen (€7.6 billion) and 5% to 1.1 trillion yen (€10.2 billion), respectively. But the company trimmed its full-year projections for revenue 3% to 21.3 trillion yen (€206.2 billion) and for sales by 50,000 units to 8.75 million vehicles.