TOKYO (AP) — Nissan has reported a drop in third quarter profit to about a fourth of the previous year's, mainly because U.S. tax reforms had lifted profits a year earlier.

Nissan Motor Co. said Tuesday that its October-December profit was 70.4 billion yen ($637 million), down from 301.6 billion yen the previous year.

Quarterly sales grew 6 percent to 3.05 trillion yen ($27.5 billion).

Nissan has been rocked recently by the arrest of its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, on charges of financial misconduct.

The maker of the Leaf electric vehicle, X-Trail sport utility vehicle and Infiniti luxury models lowered its profit forecast for the year through March to 410 billion yen ($3.7 billion), down 45 percent on-year. The previous projection was for a 500 billion yen (4.5 billion) profit.