Honda's Q2 operating profit jumps 40% on strong motorcycle sales in Asia

Honda Motor Co reported on Tuesday a 40.2 percent jump in second-quarter operating profit due to higher motorcycle sales in Asia and cost reductions, and as the year-ago earnings were hurt by pension accounting changes and litigation settlements.

Japan's No 3 automaker posted a 214.4 billion yen ($1.90 billion) operating profit for July-September, up from 152.9 billion yen a year ago and higher than the average estimate of 164.4 billion yen in a poll of 10 analysts, according to Refinitiv data.

A year ago, operating profit had tumbled 32.9 percent, largely due to the impact of pension accounting changes and litigation settlements.

Honda upgraded its forecast for full-year operating profit to 790 billion yen from a previous outlook of 710 billion yen, based on a revised assumption that the yen will trade around 110 yen to the US dollar.

That was in line with the 792 billion yen average forecast of 22 analysts, according to Refinitiv data.