Nintendo swings to first quarter operating profit, beats estimates

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Nintendo Co Ltd said on Wednesday it returned to profit in its first quarter, beating analyst estimates, due to strong demand for its Switch console.

Operating profit reached 16.21 billion yen ($144.95 million) for the three months through June, reversing a year-earlier loss of 5.13 billion yen. That compared with an 11.55 billion yen Thomson Reuters Starmine SmartEstimate, based on estimates of six analysts.

Nintendo maintained its Switch sales forecast for the financial year at 10 million units.

The Kyoto-based company also kept its 65 billion yen forecast for the year ending March, versus the 127.94 billion yen SmartEstimate of 21 analysts.

SmartEstimates give greater weight to recent estimates by the more consistently accurate analysts.