TOKYO: Nissan, Japan’s second- biggest carmaker, reported profit that beat analysts’ estimate as deliveries rose in China and the US, its two biggest markets.

Net income rose 37 percent to 112.1 billion yen ($1.1 billion) in the April-June quarter, beating the 84.3 billion yen average of 14 analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. The Yokohama-based automaker maintained its profit forecast.

The profit increase may signal Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn is gaining traction after making dozens of executive changes in November to improve execution and cut incentives in the US Deliveries have outpaced Honda and Toyota in the US and China this year as Nissan chases its targets of 8 percent operating margin and global market share.

“In terms of their full-year plan, they are pretty much on track,” said Kota Yuzawa, an auto analyst at Goldman Sachs in Tokyo. “Their China sales are quite strong this year.”

Operating profit in the quarter rose 13 percent to 122.6 billion yen, beating analysts’ estimate of 114.2 billion. Sales rose 10 percent to 2.47 trillion yen, compared with the analysts’ estimate of 2.41 trillion.

Nissan forecasts global deliveries will climb 8.9 percent to 5.65 million vehicles this fiscal year, representing a global market share of 6.7 percent, it said in May. Revenue will rise 3 percent to 10.79 trillion yen, while operating profit will gain 7 percent to 535 billion yen, the company said.

The stock rose 13 percent this year, compared with a 4.7 percent decline for the benchmark Nikkei 225 Stock Average. The stock has 13 buys, 15 holds and 1 sell, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“Encouraging demand for new products, benefits from recent plant investments, and improving market conditions in North America, China and Europe combined to lift both revenues and profits,” Ghosn said in a statement. “Nissan is well placed to deliver on its outlook given our continued product offensive along with measures to enhance competitiveness, build market share and the ongoing benefits of our Alliance strategy.”

In North America, Nissan reaped 51 billion yen in operating profit last quarter, increasing from 41.8 billion yen a year earlier.

In the US, Nissan overcame production delays for its key models including the Altima mid-size sedan in 2012, boosting January-June sales by 13 percent, compared with the 5 percent growth at Toyota and 1 percent decline at Honda.

The carmaker’s incentives in the country fell 17 percent to $2,254 per unit in June from a year earlier, after it cut sticker price for most of its models in 2013, according to market researcher Autodata. That’s still higher than most Asian car brands, including Toyota and Honda. Nissan is counting on the Murano SUV slated for later this year to further improve US profitability.

“Manufacturing and sales operations — which had been falling like dominoes into chaos since March 2012 — have finally stabilized,” Takaki Nakanishi, a Tokyo-based analyst with Jefferies Group LLC, wrote in a report this month. “Nissan must recuperate the core of the North American competitiveness and profitability.”

In China, where Nissan is the biggest Japanese automaker, sales rose 21 percent in the quarter to 283,000 units, boosted by the X-trail SUV.

Nissan is targeting to gain a 10 percent share of the market in China, which accounts for a quarter of the automaker’s sales by volume. The company has said it expects to sell more than 1.4 million units this year in the world’s largest car market.

While sales are expanding in China and the US, Nissan still has to grapple with start up costs with new plants in emerging markets. The carmaker opened its second plant in Thailand this month and will start production at its fourth plant in China later this year.

Back home in Japan, operating profit fell to 56.9 billion yen from 74.8 billion yen last year. Nissan’s domestic deliveries fell in the April-June quarter after the first consumption tax increase in the country since 1997.

The growth in profit was also helped by Nissan’s premium Infiniti brand, where first-half sales rose 30 percent to a record. Deliveries in China more than doubled from a year earlier.

Infiniti chief Johan De Nysschen is leaving the carmaker to head General Motors’ Cadillac brand, just as sales are rising and the brand is preparing to start production of two long-wheelbase models in China. De Nysschen had set a target for Infiniti to win 10 percent of the world premium market by 2020 to challenge Volkswagen’s Audi, Bayerische Motoren Werke and Daimler’s Mercedes-Benz.