Nintendo’s Profit Up but Stock Falls on Outlook

Nintendo Co.’s profit jumped 12.5% for the fiscal year that ended March 31 as a foreign exchange gain and robust sales of hand-helds offset shrinking sales of home consoles. But its share price dropped 7.3% on its disappointing forecast for the year ahead.

Net profit at Kyoto, Japan-based Nintendo, which makes Super Mario and Pokemon games as well as Game Boy machines, totaled 98.4 billion yen ($877 million), up from 87.4 billion yen the previous year, the company said. Fiscal 2005 sales slipped 1.2% to 509.2 billion yen ($4.5 billion).

Nintendo is forecasting lower profit for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2007, at 65 billion yen ($579 million), although sales are projected to climb to 600 billion yen ($5.3 billion).