TOKYO, Feb 9 (Reuters) - Japan's Toyota Motor Corp on Thursday posted a surprise 22% rise in third-quarter operating profit, as a weaker yen and higher sales volumes helped the automaker overcome a jolt from soaring raw-materials costs.
Operating profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 was 956.7 billion yen ($7.28 billion). That beat the average 764.54 billion yen profit estimated by 10 analysts, according to Refinitiv data. In the same period a year earlier, Toyota reported a 784.4 billion yen profit.
The world's largest automaker, like many global manufacturers, is grappling with the continued fall-out from semiconductor shortage and the pain from rising costs.
While it stuck to its forecast for an annual profit of 2.4 trillion yen for the year to end-March it also trimmed its annual production target by about 1%, to around 9.1 million vehicles. That was a sign of a possible prolonged impact on output from the hard-to-predict shortages of chips and parts.
The company said it was striving to quickly evaluate alternative semiconductors and take other measures to secure stable procurement of chips, according to a presentation that accompanied the results.
Toyota benefited from a plunge in the yen in October last year. The Japanese currency hit a 32-year low of 151.94 to the dollar on Oct. 21, prompting authorities to intervene.
Toyota said last month its chief executive, Akio Toyoda, would step down in April as head of the company his grandfather founded. He will hand over to the leader of Toyota's Lexus luxury brand as the shift to electric vehicles challenges the car giant.
Toyota shares, which were down 0.4% just before the release of the earnings, reversed losses immediately after and were up 0.6% at 1,909 yen by 0434 GMT.
($1 = 131.3500 yen)
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