Despite Success, Toyota Unloved by U.S. Investors
Interesting piece in Business Week (subscription required) on how American investors remain largely indifferent about Toyota stock, despite the company's enormous business success, not least in the U.S. The lack of interest is especially surprising in contrast to the attention lavished on GM and Ford, despite their poor results and uncertain futures. Toyota's average daily volume of 370,000 shares is just a small fraction of GM's 13 million and Ford's 26 million.

Auto analyst John Novak at Morningstar says Toyota has a "mind share" problem: "There's a perception that you can't invest in it [because] it's a Japanese company -- that you would require a special account." That's wrong, of course -- there are dollar-denominated Toyota ADRs. Another reason cited is Toyota's exclusion from U.S. market indexes, which should continue to penalize the stock in terms of volume.