Toyota Motor Corp. reported Friday that its quarterly profit climbed 7.2 percent in April-June to a record 657.3 billion yen ($5.9 billion), exceeding analysts’ forecasts thanks to strong sales in the U.S. and other overseas markets.
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The maker of the Camry sedan, Prius hybrid and Lexus luxury models said sales rose 4.5 percent, also to a record, of 7.4 trillion yen ($66 billion). Toyota’s profit in the same quarter a year earlier was 613.0 billion yen.
The results were better than expected given recent trends in the U.S. market and Japan, where Toyota’s sales did fall, by almost 34,000 units.
With uncertainties prevailing over possible U.S. tariff increases, the company kept its profit forecast for the full year unchanged at 2.12 trillion yen ($66 billion) and trimmed its sales forecast to 8.9 million vehicles from the earlier estimated 8.95 million units.
Toyota has invested heavily in U.S. manufacturing facilities, which should soothe the sting from higher tariffs. But all the big Japanese automakers would hurt if President Donald Trump’s administration follows through on threats to impose 25 percent tariffs on imports of autos and auto parts.
Toyota again released its results before Tokyo’s markets closed instead of waiting for the end of trading as has been standard practice for decades.
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Its share price fell 0.8 percent Friday in Tokyo.
