Panasonic posts 19% drop in third-quarter profit, lowers full-year outlook

Tokyo: Japan`s Panasonic Corp reported on Monday a 19 percent drop in third-quarter operating profit and lowered its full-year earnings outlook, even though investment in its battery business with U.S. electric vehicle maker Tesla Inc began to pay off.

The electronics company posted an operating profit of 97.6 billion yen ($889.05 million) for the October-December quarter, down from 120.1 billion yen a year ago. That was far below the average 122.35 billion yen estimate of eight analysts, according to Refinitiv data.

Panasonic cut its operating profit forecast for the year ending March to 385 billion yen from 425 billion yen. The outlook compared with the 420.25 billion yen average of 18 analyst estimates, according to Refinitiv data.