TOKYO (Reuters) - Canon Inc. posted a 19.7 percent rise in operating profit for 2004 on Friday on strong sales of color copiers, laser printers and digital cameras and forecast record earnings for a fifth straight year.
Canon, which runs neck-and-neck with Sony Corp. for top spot in the digital camera market, also said it expects group operating profit to rise 5.4 percent to 573 billion yen ($5.57 billion) in 2005, helped by healthy demand for color copiers and printers.
The forecast beat the consensus figure of 548 billion yen in a poll of 17 analysts by Reuters Estimates.
Canon, the world's top maker of laser printers, said group operating profit came to 543.79 billion yen last year, against a profit of 454.4 billion yen in 2003. The result was above the market consensus of 532.7 billion yen.
Canon's own forecast was for 535 billion yen.
U.S.-based Xerox flagged strength in the office equipment market earlier this week by logging a 15 percent rise in profit for the latest quarter on solid demand for copiers and printers. The weak dollar also boosted its results.
Analysts say Konica Minolta Holdings and Ricoh Co. will join Canon and Xerox with robust results when they report next week as they too are expected to have benefited from strong sales of color copiers.
Shares in Canon rose 11 percent during 2004, outperforming Tokyo's precision machines index IPRCS, which gained 5 percent.
Original Post