Investing.com — Toyota Motor Corp (TYO:) (NYSE:) on Wednesday posted weaker-than-expected earnings for the September quarter, as auto demand continued to decline after a string of robust gains over the past year, with the automaker also on the decline. was shrinking, its annual sales guidelines.
Toyota’s operating profit for the three months ended September 30 fell 20% to 1.16 trillion yen ($7.81 billion), missing Bloomberg estimates of 1.25 trillion yen.
The softer figure – which represents Toyota’s first profit decline in two years – was mainly driven by weaker sales in North America, the company’s largest market. But the weaker sales also compared to record high sales in 2023, as the automaker benefited from a shift to its hybrid vehicles instead of fully electric vehicles.
The world’s largest automaker still saw strong hybrid sales over the past six months with 1.8 million units sold, although they were down 35% from the same period last year.
Toyota has slightly revised its expectations for car sales in the current fiscal year, forecasting 10.85 million units, compared to a previous forecast of 10.95 million units.
But Toyota left its annual sales revenue unchanged at 46.00 trillion yen, with a net profit of 3.57 trillion yen.
The automaker announced an interim dividend of 40 yen.
