Japanese games maker Nintendo (7974.T) said on Thursday its operating profit soared 150.5% to 142.6 billion yen ($903.6 million) in the April-June quarter, helped by brisk demand for Switch and Switch 2 software and refunds of U.S. tariffs.
That compared with the 70.3 billion yen average of 15 analyst estimates compiled by LSEG.
For the full year through March 2027, Nintendo maintained its operating profit forecast of 370 billion yen.
It also kept unchanged its forecasts for sales of 16.5 million units of Switch 2 hardware in the current business year, 60 million units of Switch 2 software and 105 million units of Switch software.
SET TO SURPASS OUTLOOK
Hideki Yasuda, senior analyst at Toyo Research Advice, said Nintendo appeared set to exceed its own Switch 2 hardware sales forecast for the year.
"I believe it will beat its own outlook by a considerable margin. Usually, a first quarter (ending June) accounts for about 15% of annual unit sales. But its quarterly sales are in excess of 20% of the annual target," Yasuda said.
Nintendo also said it had received a substantial refund of money that had been paid out on tariffs on imports of its goods into the U.S.
"We recorded approximately $300 million as a reduction of cost of sales in connection with refunds of IEEPA tariffs," it said in a statement. "The tariffs related to the refunds were primarily borne by the company rather than passed on to consumers through product prices."
President Donald Trump's administration has refunded about $100 billion from tariffs it collected before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down those duties, a court filing showed on Tuesday.
Nintendo's shares closed up 2.9% ahead of Thursday's earnings statement but are down 28% year-to-date, far underperforming the benchmark Nikkei average's (.N225) 30% advance over the same period.
Market concerns about the impact of soaring memory prices and a lack of blockbuster games from series such as "Super Mario" and "The Legend of Zelda" have weighed on the stock.
($1 = 157.8100 yen)
