Canon posts 30.9 percent drop in Q2 profit, raises forecast

TOKYO (Reuters) - Canon Inc <7751.T> posted a 30.9 percent decline in quarterly operating profit on Monday, hurt by production halts due to parts shortages after the March 11 earthquake, but it raised its full-year forecast due to a faster recovery than expected.

Canon's April-June figure came to 78.4 billion yen ($1 billion), which is higher than an expected profit of 55.9 billion yen, the average of six analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, but lower than the 113.4 billion yen it booked for the same quarter last year.

The world's biggest maker of digital cameras also lifted its annual forecast to 380 billion yen, after slashed its full-year operating profit forecast following the devastating March earthquake and tsunami to 335 billion yen from 470 billion yen.

Market expectations are for an annual profit of 365 billion yen, based on the average of 18 forecasts by analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. ($1 = 78.355 Japanese Yen)

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Matt Driskill)