FY2027-Q1: assessing the start of the revenue plan and the gap from the profit plan

For the fiscal year ended May 2026, revenue was ¥1,099,583 million, up 8.7% year on year, while operating profit was ¥42,353 million, up 4.8%. By contrast, the company forecasts revenue of ¥1,190,000 million and operating profit of ¥43,000 million for the fiscal year ending May 2027, representing revenue growth of 8.2% but operating profit growth of only 1.5%. The plan assumes that profit growth will slow relative to the expansion in revenue, making FY2027-Q1 the first opportunity to assess whether this assumption remains intact.

Dividing the full-year forecast equally into four quarters gives FY2027-Q1 benchmarks of ¥297,500 million in revenue and ¥10,750 million in operating profit. However, these are mechanical benchmarks that do not account for seasonality and should not be used on their own to judge the full-year plan. In FY2026-Q1, revenue was ¥272,394 million and operating profit was ¥11,645 million, representing progress rates of 25.8% for revenue and 28.8% for operating profit against the full-year forecasts at the time. The quarterly concentration of profit therefore also warrants attention.

In the results, it will be necessary to determine not only whether year-on-year revenue growth can remain around the 8.2% assumed in the FY2027 full-year forecast, but also whether operating profit has declined from the ¥11,645 million recorded in the same quarter of the previous year. If revenue increases but operating profit falls below ¥10,750 million, a recovery in the second half will be needed to reach the full-year target of ¥43,000 million. Conversely, if operating profit progress exceeds revenue progress, we will want to determine whether the low full-year profit growth rate is conservative or reflects factors specific to the first half.