TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp’s profit slumped a worse-than-expected 42 percent in its first quarter as the Japanese automaker was squeezed between supply constraints and rising costs.
Operating profit for the three months ended June 30 sank to 578.66 billion yen ($4.3 billion) from 997.4 billion yen in the same period a year ago, Toyota said on Thursday, capping a tough period. It has repeatedly cut monthly output goals due to the global chip shortage and COVID-19 curbs on plants in China.
The scale of the earnings hit was far beyond expectations—analysts polled by Refinitiv had estimated a 15 percent drop—and appeared to catch investors by surprise. Shares of Toyota, the world’s biggest automaker by sales, extended losses, sliding 3 percent….