Toyota Close to Normal

Toyota Motor (TM) was hard hit by the tragic Japan earthquake and tsunami.

In spite of these challenges, Toyota managed to increase its vehicle sales in the first quarter in international markets by 8% year over year. Toyota’s international vehicles sales account for around 42% of its global vehicle sales and the company sells its vehicles mainly under three brands: Toyota, Lexus and Scion.

The company globally with automakers like BMW, GM(GM_), Ford(F_), Honda(HMC_), Daimler and others.

We have a price estimate of nearly $94 for Toyota stock, or about 15% ahead of the current market price.

Localized decision making

Toyota is focusing on decentralizing its decision making structure. A decentralized structure will help Toyota to quickly reflect customer feedback in its R&D, production and sales operations and make quick decisions regionally.

We believe that this will help Toyota stay nimble in responding to customer demand in its global markets and capitalize quickly on sales opportunities in fast growing emerging countries and other international markets. This can help increase Toyota’s market share in international automobile markets over the mid- to long-term.

Auto Parts Supply Chain Almost Normal

Many vehicles sold in Asia depend on parts supplied by companies from northeast Japan, many of which were affected by the Japan earthquake. This disruption in auto parts supplies initially affected Toyota’s production capacity in its international markets especially in Asia. However many of these Japanese supplies are back up and running and production levels could reach last pre-quake levels as early as July.

We believe that the recent setback will partially moderate its international vehicles sales growth in the short-term while Toyota works towards reestablishing its supply chains.

You can drag the trend lines in the modifiable charts above to see the impact of these trends on Toyota’s stock value. By Trefis, The Street