Is Toyota Motor Poised to Rise?

With shares of Toyota Motor (NYSE:TM) trading around $129, is TM an OUTPERFORM, WAIT AND SEE, or STAY AWAY? Let's analyze the stock with the relevant sections of our CHEAT SHEET investing framework:

T = Trends for a Stock’s Movement

Toyota Motor is a Japan-based company mainly engaged in the automobile business and financial business. The company operates through three business segments: Automobile, Finance, and Others. Through its segments, Toyota Motor designs, manufactures, and sells vehicles as well as related parts and accessories; offers financial services related to the sale of its products; and is involved in the design, manufacture, and sale of housing, information and communication businesses. Vehicles and related products are seeing increased innovation and Toyota Motor is at the head of this trend. Toyota has been dominating the competition and has been first to provide new technologies so look for the company to continue innovating.

Toyota Motors, the world's largest automaker, reported that profit rose 70 percent during the quarter to $4.4 billion, causing Toyota to raise its full-year outlook. Toyota has been refraining from heavy spending and has benefited from the weak yen while its Japanese rivals are dealing with high expansion costs. Toyota raised its full-year net profit forecast to $16.95 billion for the fiscal year ending in March 2014, a figure that's close to Toyota's record yearly profit set six years ago. Toyota sold more vehicles than any other automaker in the world during the first nine months of the year.

T = Technicals on the Stock Chart Are Strong

Toyota Motor stock has been trending higher in the past year. The stock is currently trading near all time highs and looks poised to continue Analyzing the price trend and its strength can be done using key simple moving averages. What are the key moving averages? The 50-day (pink), 100-day (blue), and 200-day (yellow) simple moving averages. As seen in the daily price chart below, Toyota Motor is trading above its rising key averages, which signal neutral to bullish price action in the near-term.

(Source: Thinkorswim)

Taking a look at the implied volatility (red) and implied volatility skew levels of Toyota Motor options may help determine if investors are bullish, neutral, or bearish.

	Implied Volatility (IV)	30-Day IV Percentile	90-Day IV Percentile
Toyota Motor Options	24.65%	0%	0%

What does this mean? This means that investors or traders are buying a very small amount of call and put options contracts as compared to the last 30 and 90 trading days.

	Put IV Skew	Call IV Skew
December Options	Flat	Average
January Options	Flat	Average

As of today, there is an average demand from call buyers or sellers and low demand by put buyers or high demand by put sellers, all neutral to bullish over the next two months. To summarize, investors are buying a very small amount of call and put option contracts and are leaning neutral to bullish over the next two months.

On the next page, let’s take a look at the earnings and revenue growth rates and the conclusion.

E = Earnings Are Mixed Quarter-Over-Quarter

Rising stock prices are often strongly correlated with rising earnings and revenue growth rates. Also, the last four quarterly earnings announcement reactions help gauge investor sentiment on Toyota Motor’s stock. What do the last four quarterly earnings and revenue growth (Y-O-Y) figures for Toyota Motor look like and more importantly, how did the markets like these numbers?

	2013 Q3	2013 Q2	2013 Q1	2012 Q4
Earnings Growth (Y-O-Y)	69.77%	55.77%	113.50%	9.74%
Revenue Growth (Y-O-Y)	16.19%	-8.43%	-10.59%	-1.86%
Earnings Reaction	0.72%*	6.41%	3.12%	1.04%

Toyota Motor has seen increasing earnings and decreasing revenue figures over the last four quarters. From these numbers, the markets have been pleased with Toyota Motor’s recent earnings announcements.

* As of this writing

P = Excellent Relative Performance Versus Peers and Sector

How has Toyota Motor stock done relative to its peers, General Motors (NYSE:GM), Ford Motor (NYSE:F), Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA), and sector?

	Toyota Motor	General Motors	Ford Motor	Tesla Motors	Sector
Year-to-Date Return	39.10%	28.17%	31.35%	357.20%	33.87%

Toyota Motor has been a relative performance leader, year-to-date.

Conclusion

Toyota Motor provides innovative vehicles and related products to consumers and companies worldwide. The company recently reported earnings that profit rose 70 percent which left investors happy. The stock has been trending higher in the past year and is currently trading near all time highs. Over the last four quarters, investors in the company have been happy, however, revenues have been declining while earnings have been rising. Relative to its peers and sector, Toyota Motor has been a year-to-date performance leader. Look for Toyota Motor to OUTPERFORM.