Canon Inc posted a 14 percent rise in quarterly operating profit on Monday, as it battled the impact of a strong yen and floods in Thailand with cost cuts and increased automation.

The camera and printer-maker's operating profit for October-December was 94.6 billion yen ($1.23 billion), compared with 82.9 billion yen in the same quarter of the previous year. Consensus expectations were for a 92.4 billion yen profit, based on the average of five estimates from analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Canon made 378.1 billion yen in operating profit for the full year to December 2011, down from 387.6 billion yen for the previous year but beating the average of 20 analyst forecasts for a profit of 372 billion yen.

It forecast a full-year operating profit of 390 billion yen for the current year to December 2012, compared with expectations of a 470 billion yen profit based on the average of 20 estimates by analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

($1 = 76.72 yen)

(Reporting by Isabel Reynolds; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

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