Toyota stock rallies after company lowered sales guidance. Here's how rare that is.

By Steve Goldstein

Japanese car giant Toyota on November 5, 2026, raised its full-year profit forecasts on the back of strong demand for hybrid vehicles and the weak yen, despite fierce competition from Chinese rivals.

Toyota Motor on Thursday saw an odd combination of a powerful stock-market gain after lowering its annual sales forecast.

Toyota stock (JP:7203) (TM) jumped 17% in Tokyo, against a Nikkei 225 index JP:NIK that declined, after its fiscal second-quarter results.

A screen on FactSet found 24 companies in the S&P 500 lowered their sales guidance for this year. Only two, Gartner (IT) and Equifax (EFX), saw double-digit price gains afterwards. The average price move was a 3% decline.

The automaker's revenue forecast for the March-ending fiscal year was lowered to 53.5 trillion yen ($338 billion) from 54 trillion yen, as the Japanese manufacturer lifted its operating-income forecast to 3.9 trillion yen from 3.4 trillion yen.

According to Visible Alpha, analysts had expected an annual operating profit of 3.8 billion yen on revenue of 53.9 billion yen.

The company's second-quarter operating profit of 990.5 billion yen edged ahead of analyst expectations for 986 billion yen, as revenue of 13.44 trillion yen compared to expectations of 13.35 trillion yen.

Toyota highlighted improving marketing efforts, cost-reductions and the impact of a weaker yen on its profits, even as it grapples with rising materials prices and the cost of the war in the Middle East.

Like rivals, it's also combatting a ferociously competitive Chinese market.

Where Toyota has been successful is selling electric - notably, hybrid - vehicles, that now account for 55.6% of total sales, vs 46.7% last year.

-Steve Goldstein

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11-05-26 0515ET