(November 5, 2009) Toyota Motor Corp. reported a surprise quarterly profit and slashed its annual loss forecast by more than half as sales and cost cutting beat its forecasts, putting it on track to follow Japanese rivals into the black next year.

Toyota now expects an operating loss of 350 billion yen ($3.9 billion) for the year to March 31, closer to an average projection of a 293 billion yen loss in a poll of 22 analysts by Thomson Reuters.

It expects a net loss of 200 billion yen instead of a loss of 450 billion yen. For the July-September quarter, Toyota reported an operating profit of 58.0 billion yen, down 66 percent from a year earlier but beating an average estimate of a loss of 63 billion yen from five analysts. Its net profit fell 84 percent to 21.84 billion yen, while revenue dropped 24 percent to 4.54 trillion yen.

Toyota, until two years ago the world's most profitable automaker, had been the only top Japanese carmaker expected to post a loss in the latest quarter, weighed down by severe overcapacity after years of building new factories during its boom years before the financial crisis hit.