Nintendo swings to first-quarter operating profit; analysts expected loss

A man walks past an advertisement of ''Mario'', a character in Nintendo Co Ltd's ''Mario Bros'' video games, at an electronics retail store in Tokyo May 7, 2015.

/Toru Hanai

Nintendo Co reported a surprise first-quarter operating profit, helped by a weaker yen and strong sales of its "amiibo" figurines which are sold as accessories to their popular games.Nintendo swung to an April-June operating profit of 1.1 billion yen ($9.3 million) from a loss of 9.5 billion yen a year earlier. Analysts on average expected a loss of 6.3 billion yen, according to Thomson data. (Reporting by Ritsuko Ando; Editing by Christopher Cushing)