TOKYO — Honda Motor Co.'s net profit for the first quarter of its fiscal year slipped 7 percent, largely on financial expenses and other spending, although its auto sales increased outside of Japan.
Tokyo-based Honda reported Wednesday a 122.4 billion yen ($1.25 billion) profit for the April-June period. The Japanese automaker also got a perk from a favorable currency rate.
The result was lower than the 146 billion yen ($1.5 billion) profit forecast by analysts surveyed by FactSet.
The company said it invested in research and new plants and that operating profit, which reflects its core-business performance and factors out its tax bill and one-time quirks, did better than the previous year.
But it lost money for financial reasons such as currency hedges and derivative expenses, the company said.
The maker of the Odyssey minivan and Fit subcompact stuck to its annual forecast for 580 billion yen ($5.9 billion) profit, up nearly 60 percent on year.
It's expecting to sell 4.43 million vehicles for the fiscal year through March 2014, up from 4 million the previous year.
Japanese automakers, including Honda, are growing in emerging markets. Quarterly sales rose a strong 16 percent to 2.83 trillion yen ($28.9 billion) as auto sales grew around the world to 858,000 vehicles, up from 849,000 vehicles the same period a year earlier.
