Car shoppers often look for good deals, but what about stock shoppers? Japanese automotive giant Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) is reasonably valued and offers a decent dividend.
Plus, you’ll definitely want to add Toyota stock to your holdings after you learn about its progress in selling electric vehicles. If you’re optimistic about self-driving vehicles, Toyota has something for value seekers, income investors, and EV enthusiasts worldwide.
Toyota’s Electrifying EV-Sales Numbers
I’ve been recommending Toyota stock to value hunters for a while. The last time I checked, Toyota’s GAAP trailing 12-month price-to-earnings ratio was just 8.54x, roughly half the sector median P/E ratio.
Toyota should appeal strongly to income-focused investors. Toyota offers a forward annual dividend yield of 2.1%, which is double the consumer cyclical sector average yield of approximately 1%.
Those aren’t the only statistics you should pay attention to, though. Toyota just published its June U.S. sales report, and there’s some need-to-know information in there.
The automaker’s U.S. vehicle sales for June dipped 1.2% year over year, but that’s not the full story. For the second quarter of 2024, Toyota’s U.S. vehicle sales grew by 9.2% YOY.
Here’s the real kicker, however. On a YOY basis, Toyota’s U.S. EV sales increased by a whopping 64.5% to 84,781 units. That’s not just a single-month fluke, as Toyota’s second-quarter U.S. EV sales grew 63.1% YOY to 247,347 units.
Clearly, Toyota is making a successful shift toward electrified vehicles in 2024. During the second quarter, Toyota’s EV sales represented an eyebrow-raising 39.8% of the company’s total U.S. sales.
Get Ready for Toyota’s Big Self-Driving Tech Launch
Along with vehicle electrification, Toyota is getting ultraserious about self-driving technology. In this area, Toyota is teaming up with China-based Guangzhou Automobile Group to potentially restore Toyota’s “market share in China.”
With Guangzhou Automobile Group’s help, Toyota plans to launch the Bozhi 3X SUV model next year in China.
If all goes according to plan, this will be the “first model to be equipped with the system that would enable advanced driving assistance for parking and navigation on highways and urban traffics.”
It’s an ambitious foray into self-driving tech, to say the least. Toyota anticipates that the Bozhi 3X launch “would ensure its leadership in autonomous driving technology offerings among all foreign brands in China.”
That’s big talk and there’s certainly no guarantee that Toyota will crowd out the competition in China’s self-driving automotive technology market. Nevertheless, investors should stay tuned for further updates on this notable team-up that could eventually benefit Toyota’s bottom line.
Toyota Stock: Put on Your Seat Belts, Folks!
There are ample reasons to invest in Toyota today. The company pays a decent dividend and isn’t too richly valued. In addition, Toyota is demonstrably making strides in selling EVs.
Along with all of that, Toyota has an opportunity to take market share in China with leading-edge autonomous-vehicle technology. Therefore, today is the day for you to get out of the slow lane and put some Toyota stock in your portfolio.
On the date of publication, David Moadel did not have (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article. The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer, subject to the InvestorPlace.com Publishing Guidelines.
On the date of publication, the responsible editor did not have (either directly or indirectly) and positions in the securities mentioned in this article.