Toyota quarterly operating profit jumps five-fold

Company says operating profit jumped to $3 bn and would treble in the current year

Toyota Motor Corp, Japan's top automaker, said quarterly operating profit jumped more than five-fold to $3 billion and would treble in the current year as vehicle production roars back from post-disaster lows.

January-March operating profit increased to 238.5 billion yen beating a consensus estimate of 223 billion yen in a survey of 23 analysts. Fourth-quarter net profit jumped to 121 billion yen from 25.4 billion yen a year ago.

For the year to next March, Toyota forecast operating profit would rise to 1 trillion yen, its highest since the global financial crisis. Consensus forecasts have been for a full-year profit of 990 billion yen.

Toyota shares have gained more than a third since the broad market trough in late-November, outperforming local rivals Nissan and Honda, US competitors General Motors and Ford and Volkswagen, but lagging BMW's 41% jump. The main Topix share index is up by a tenth over the same period.