Canon Press Release 27/10/04

TOKYO (CBS.MW) - Japan’s Canon Inc. said Thursday its third-quarter net profit rose 39.4 percent to a record from a year earlier on robust sales of digital cameras, laser beam printers and semiconductor-production equipment, and upgraded its full-year earnings forecast.

The world’s biggest maker of copiers said its net profit for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose to 101.78 billion yen ($960 million) from 73 billion yen a year ago.

Operating profit for the quarter rose 26.1 percent to a record 158.3 billion yen. Sales rose 9.2 percent to 838.3 billion yen.

For the fourth quarter, Canon said that the digital camera market is expected to continue growing at a rapid pace, particularly in the overseas markets.

While new orders from the semiconductor production equipment market are expected to slow down somewhat, the level of capital investment by semiconductor manufacturers is likely to remain steady.

For the year ending December, the company raised its net profit forecast to 339 billion yen from 320 billion, while revising its income before income taxes and minority interests to 548 billion yen from 520 billion yen.

It left its full-year sales forecast unchanged at 3.47 trillion yen.

Shares of Canon (CAJ: news, chart, profile) (JP:7751: news, chart, profile) ended up 2.2 percent in Tokyo ahead of the announcement. The Nikkei Average rose 1.5 percent