Toshiba Corp. raised its forecast for first-half operating profit to ¥70 billion from ¥30 billion, crediting growth in storage and electronic devices for a more than doubling of its earnings outlook.
A weaker-than-expected yen and sales of hard drives and smartphone memory are the main factors, the company said in a statement Wednesday.
Toshiba, which makes everything from computers to nuclear power equipment, in August reported its first operating profit in six quarters. The manufacturer is cutting thousands of jobs, shedding operations and narrowing the scope of its businesses to recover from an accounting scandal that upended the Tokyo-based company and its management. The company said demand from PC and game console manufacturers boosted sales of hard drives. It may have also benefited from supplying memory chips to Apple Inc.
"Apple's recent upgrades to its smartphone embedded memory have also helped Toshiba's cause," Amir Anvarzadeh, Singapore-based head of Japanese equity sales at BGC Partners Inc., wrote in a note. "Many analysts have already upgraded the name and their forecasts in anticipation of this revision."
The company kept its forecast for ¥100 billion in net income and ¥120 billion of operating profit for the fiscal year ending March 2017. That compares with the ¥135 billion and ¥165 billion averages of analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
The company in August forecast the dollar to trade at ¥100 and the euro at ¥110 in the quarter ending Sept. 30. The dollar has traded at ¥102.4 and the euro at ¥114.3 on average during the period.
Toshiba also raised its net income outlook for the first half by 21 percent to ¥85 billion and increased the sales forecast by 3.2 percent.