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Canon Q1 profit surges, raises 2010 outlook

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CIOL Bureau
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TOKYO, JAPAN: Japan's Canon Inc's quarterly profit jumped more than fourfold on brisk demand for cameras and printers, and the company brought its full-year outlook closer to market expectations.

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Operating profit at Canon, the world's largest digital camera maker ahead of Sony Corp, rose to 86.8 billion yen ($924.2 million) in January-March from a 20.03 billion yen profit in the same quarter a year earlier.

Canon benefited from growing demand for single-lens reflex (SLR) cameras as the customer base continues to spread from professional photographers and camera enthusiasts to casual users thanks to the launch in recent years of introductory models.

Its results also reflected a recovery in corporate spending on office equipment.

The maker of IXY and EOS brand digital cameras lifted its operating profit forecast for calendar 2010 to 360 billion yen from 330 billion yen. This was still short of the consensus of a 371.2 billion yen profit in a poll of 20 analysts by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Canon shares have gained 8.6 percent so far this year through Friday, underperforming a 12.6 percent rise in the Tokyo stock market's electrical machinery index.

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