By Dhirendra Tripathi
Investing.com – Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) shares were up more than 2% in Wednesday’s premarket as the company more than doubled its March quarter net profit and forecast a double-digit increase in annual sales in value terms.
A $2.3 billion share repurchase program, a stock split of 5:1 and the announcement that it will return to pre-pandemic profitability in the current fiscal year also helped sentiment toward the stock.
The world's biggest automaker by vehicle sales expects demand in its biggest market, the U.S., to drive the recovery and forecast 2021-22 sales to grow 6.4% to 10.55 million units. The numbers include those under Daihatsu and Hino brands.
Toyota expects that boost in vehicle sales to help it clock a 10.2% annual increase in revenue to 30 trillion yen in the ongoing financial year. It sees net profit rising 2.4% to 2.3 trillion yen.
Net profit rose 137.4% from a year-ago quarter to 777.1 billion yen ($7.14 billion). Sales were up 11.4% at 7.68 trillion yen.
Other income that was higher by more than nine-fold at 372.5 billion yen boosted the profits.
The company said it will maintain and also improve upon its consolidated dividend payout ratio of 30%.