Lower yen offsets airbag troubles

Article Excerpt

Toyota and Honda have had to recall thousands of cars in the past few weeks to replace defective airbags made by Takata Corp. That’s because they could deploy too forcefully and injure drivers. However, the recalls are unlikely to hurt the companies’ sales. Both will also keep benefiting from the falling Japanese yen, which makes their overseas sales more valuable. TOYOTA MOTOR CO. ADRs $122 (New York symbol TM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $207.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.9; Dividend yield: 2.6%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.toyota.com) is the world’s biggest carmaker by sales. In its fiscal 2015 second quarter, which ended September 30, 2014, Toyota sold 2.24 million vehicles, unchanged from a year ago. North American sales jumped 12.5%, thanks to strong demand for sport utility vehicles. That offset declines in Japan (down 8.9%), other parts of Asia (down 4.2%) and Europe (down 3.3%). Overall revenue fell 6.5%, to $59.8 billion…