Honda Motor Co. reported Friday a ¥95.9 billion ($864 million) profit for January-March, a turnaround from the ¥93.4 billion loss it racked up a year earlier, as the automaker recovers from costs for a massive air bag recall. Quarterly sales rose 2.9 percent to ¥3.76 trillion ($33.9 billion) from ¥3.66 trillion. The performance exceeded forecasts by analysts at FactSet. Tokyo-based Honda, which makes the Accord sedan, Odyssey minivan and Asimo robot, said an unfavorable exchange rate and research spending that chipped away at profits were offset by lower recall expenses and cost cuts. Honda is the biggest customer of Japanese air bag maker Takata Corp., which is recalling millions of defective air bags whose inflators can explode with too much force, spewing shrapnel. For the fiscal year through March, Honda posted a ¥616.5 billion ($5.6 billion) profit, up dramatically from ¥344.5 billion the previous fiscal year, and better than the company or analyst forecasts.