toho cos shares rose sharply wednesday morning after the japanese movie company posted a 72 rise in firstquarter net profit citing movie hits and a rise in theater visitors the shares were recently 69 higher at 5310 yen after rising as much as 80 earlier toho said tuesday after the market closed that net profit rose to 1152 billion yen 842 million for the quarter ended may 31 from y668 billion a year earlier revenue rose 70 from a year earlier to y61865 billion thanks to the hits the company distributed such as detective conan the bride of halloween and shin ultraman toho said the number of visitors to its movie theaters increased 46 from a year earlier to 99 million as covid19related restrictions were eased toho kept its earnings projections for the fiscal year ending february 2023 it expects revenue of y23200 billion and net profit of y2850 billion toho also said it would buy back up to y60 billion of its own shares by the end of september shares of rival movie company toei co were recently up 09 and shares of another peer shochiku co were 05 higher the nikkei stock average was up 03