The focus is confirming a profit decline plan, not a profit growth phase, in FY2027-H1

First-quarter net sales for the fiscal year ending March 2027 were ¥130,674 million and operating profit was ¥14,821 million, up 23.6% and 39.5% year on year, respectively. Operating profit growth outpaced net sales growth, and the operating margin improved by approximately 1.3 percentage points, from approximately 10.1% in the same quarter of the previous year to approximately 11.3%. Based solely on the latest quarter’s figures, the company got off to a start broadly in line with the 25% elapsed-quarter ratio, with operating profit of ¥14,821 million, or 24.7% progress against the full-year operating profit forecast of ¥60,000 million.

Meanwhile, the operating profit forecast for the first half to be presented by the company at the next interim results announcement is ¥25,000 million, down 24.1% from the ¥32,957 million recorded in the same period of the previous year. First-quarter operating profit of ¥14,821 million represents 59.3% of this plan, so a simple calculation indicates that securing operating profit of ¥10,179 million in the second quarter would achieve the first-half plan. Given the strong first-quarter profit progress, the first-half plan itself is not difficult to achieve, but attention is warranted because the plan assumes that second-quarter profit will be below first-quarter profit.

In the first half of the previous fiscal year, operating profit was ¥32,957 million and net sales were ¥232,527 million. Although first-quarter profit growth has been confirmed this fiscal year, the company’s overall plan places first-half operating profit below the previous year’s level, suggesting that it may be taking a cautious view of the timing of regional recoveries and the high profit level recorded last year. However, the disclosure currently available does not provide a numerical breakdown of the first-half forecast by region or product, its foreign exchange assumptions, or the profit contribution from instruments, reagents and maintenance services.

At the next results announcement, the first points to confirm will be progress against the ¥25,000 million operating profit target and whether the full-year ¥60,000 million forecast is maintained or revised. In addition, it will be necessary to review second-quarter standalone net sales and operating profit, the operating margin, and growth on a local-currency basis excluding foreign exchange effects. The reliability of the full-year forecast will change significantly depending on whether first-quarter profit growth was driven by temporary instrument sales or foreign exchange effects, or whether it has spread to recurring revenue from reagents and maintenance services.