Honda will recover faster than Toyota

Article Excerpt

The March 2011 earthquake and tsunami severely disrupted the operations of these two Japanese carmakers. Honda appears to be in a better position to recover from the disaster than Toyota. TOYOTA MOTOR CO. ADRs $82 (New York symbol TM; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.7 billion; Market cap: $139.4 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 0.6; Dividend yield: 1.3%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.toyota.com) makes 40% of its vehicles in Japan. Its Japanese plants also make parts for vehicles that it assembles in North America. Because of ongoing parts shortages caused by the disaster in Japan, Toyota’s North American production fell 70% in May 2011 from May 2010. The company expects production to return to normal by the end of 2011. Toyota estimates that the disaster cut its fiscal 2011 earnings by $1.3 billion. Even so, the company’s earnings in its 2011 fiscal year, which ended March 31, 2011, rose 104.3%, to $4.7 billion, or $3.03 per ADR. It earned $2.3 billion,…