Why is Hitachi stock plunging today?

Hitachi stock plunged 10.5% to ¥5,030 on Thursday after the company’s Q2 FY2026 earnings, released after Wednesday’s close, disappointed investors despite a headline-grabbing revenue record.

Quarterly revenue surged 15% year-over-year to a record ¥2.904 trillion, and Hitachi raised its full-year guidance for the second time in fiscal 2026 — lifting its net profit forecast to ¥920 billion from ¥900 billion.

But net income attributable to shareholders slid to 227.1 billion yen from 280.6 billion yen, hit by a one-time cost overrun in a social infrastructure project within the Digital Systems & Services segment, which management indicated should not recur.

While the interim dividend was raised to ¥32 per share from a prior forecast of ¥28, and share buybacks remained on track at 52% completion of the full-year ¥550 billion program, these shareholder-friendly measures were not enough to offset the sting of a bottom-line drop at a stock trading near a five-year high on valuation multiples.

Hitachi was the worst performer on the Nikkei 225 index, which rose 1.2%.