Toshiba said today its first-half net profit more than doubled on gains in its semiconductor and power businesses, and raised its full-year profit forecast by 22 per cent.
Toshiba, Japan's second-largest electronics conglomerate after Hitachi, raised its annual profit forecast to 110 billion yen ($936.9 million), above a consensus estimate of 95.6 billion yen from 18 analysts polled by Reuters.
Toshiba has ramped up spending as it focuses resources in two areas.
One is NAND flash memory chips, used in cellphones and digital music players and where Toshiba has the second biggest share if the market behind South Korea's Samsung Electronics.
The other is its nuclear power business, where Toshiba has acquired Westinghouse, the US power plant unit of British Nuclear Fuels, taking a bigger-than-expected 77 percent stake.
For the six months ended September 30th, the company earned a net profit of 38.83 billion yen, in line with analyst estimates, after the company raised its first-half forecast earlier this month. The result compared with a profit of 14.65 billion yen a year ago.
Toshiba shares rose 12 per cent in the April to September period, while the Tokyo market's electrical machinery index fell 4.38 per cent.
Prior to the earnings announcement, its shares closed down 0.4 per cent at 740 yen, while the electrical machinery index rose 0.22 per cent.