Toyota Profit Hits the Skids

Toyota MotorTM, faced with a rising yen and a weaker U.S. consumer and dollar, reported a 28% drop in net income for the fiscal fourth quarter.

The Japanese automaker said Thursday that it expects its current fiscal year profit to drop 27%, which would be its first annual profit decline in several years.

Shares of Toyota were recently trading down $4.63, or 4.4%, to $100.13.

Toyota saw its profit for the quarter fall to 316.8 billion yen ($3.05 billion) from 440 billion yen. Sales rose 3.8% in the most recent quarter to 6.567 trillion yen ($63.14 billion).

Toyota saw record sales of its Yaris model and Prius hybrid. The company also is seeing strong demand overall in Asia and Latin America.

For the full fiscal year ended March 31, the company reported record profit and sales. Revenue for the full fiscal year was up 9.8%.

It's the outlook that is troubling.

"We are facing a severe business environment," said Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe. "However, Toyota considers this headwind as a valuable opportunity to turn it into a more flexible and stronger company. To this end, we will aim to eliminate waste and review the process and structure of every aspect of our operations."

The company also is coping with soaring materials and energy costs.

Still, Toyota is doing better than its American competitors General MotorsGM, which lost $3.3 billion in the first quarter, and FordF, which although reporting a surprise profit in its most recent quarter, expects a yearly loss.