Electronics maker Toshiba, the world's No. 2 maker of NAND flash memory chips behind South Korea's Samsung Electronics, made its first quarterly loss in three years as memory chip prices fell and sales of chips used by Sony slowed, but it kept its year outlook above market expectations. For April-June, Toshiba said it slipped to an operating loss of 24.18 billion yen ($225 million) against an operating profit of 21.18 billion in the same period the previous year. It posted a quarterly net loss of 11.61 billion yen, reversing from a 20.63 billion profit. Sales nudged down 2.8 percent from the same period a year earlier to 1.62 trillion yen. Nevertheless, the company announced it aimed to hit its full-year operating profit target of 290 billion yen ($2.70 billion) by pushing its power systems, PCs, elevators, and other products in the following quarters.
However, some analysts are less optimistic: "Toshiba's full-year targets are too ambitious," said an analyst at a Japanese asset management firm who asked not to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the media. "Its chips will probably post a loss in April-September, and I am betting it's going to have to revise down its outlook -- maybe in September or October."
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