Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) raised its 2012 sales forecast for the U.S. due to improving consumer confidence, rising gasoline prices and strong pent-up demand on the back of aging vehicles on road (average age of a vehicle on U.S. roads is 10.8 years).
The Japanese automaker expects to boost sales by 15% to 1.89 million vehicles in the U.S. during the year. The company believes rising gasoline prices would raise the demand for its fuel-efficient lineups.
Toyota’s sales guidance is perfectly in line with the overall trend in the automotive industry. Last month, light vehicle sales in the U.S. grew 10% to seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 14.4 million units from the prior year, reflecting a fast recovery in the industry. According to Edmunds.com, this marks the best monthly sales in the U.S. since August 2007.
Toyota’s sales escalated 15.4% to 203,282 vehicles driven by impressive sales of Camry and the Prius hybrid that offset lower sales of Lexus luxury lineup. Sales of Camry surged 35.3% to 42,567 units while sales of Prius leapt 54.3% to 28,711 units.
Recently, Ford Motor Co. (F) also raised its sales forecast for the year citing the same factors of growth. The company anticipates sales between 14.5 million and 15.0 million units in the U.S., which is higher than 13.5 million-14.5 million units projected earlier in the year.
Currently, Toyota is the No.3 automaker in the U.S. following Ford and General Motors Company (GM). In the first quarter of the year, Toyota’s market share was 14.1% while GM and Ford held market shares of 17.5% and 15.5%, respectively.
The Zacks #2 Rank (Buy) company posted an 8.3% fall in profit to ?101.7 billion ($2.6 billion) in the third quarter of fiscal year ended December 31, 2011 from ?110.9 billion in the same quarter of the prior fiscal year. On a per share basis, profits were ?25.81 (67 cents) versus ?29.86 in the third quarter of fiscal 2011, exceeding the Zacks Consensus Estimate of 27 cents. However, revenues in the quarter grew 4% to ?4.9 trillion ($126.3 billion).
The continuous decline in profits was attributable to disruptions in supply of parts caused by the earthquake and tsunami in Japan on March 11, 2011 as well as floods in Thailand in the second half of 2011, and also due to the continued appreciation of yen against dollar.
However, Toyota upgraded its financial guidance for fiscal 2012 based on cost reduction measures and continued recovery in production. The company expects revenues of ?18.3 trillion and net profit of ?200.0 billion for the year, up from the prior forecast of ?18.2 trillion and ?180 billion, respectively.
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