Nissan Motor posted a 3.4 percent fall in fourth-quarter operating profit after it had no new models to bring to the all-important U.S. market, and forecast a lower-than-expected rise in earnings for this year.

Quarterly net profit grew 9.4 percent to 152.37 billion yen ($1.32 billion), and full-year net was up 1.1 percent to 518.05 billion yen ($4.5 billion).

Japan's second-biggest auto maker, 44 percent-owned by Renault, is expected to be alone among its domestic rivals in booking a fall in quarterly profit as its product pipeline in the world's largest car market remains bare until the latter half of this business year.

While Nissan expects a late-year comeback with the roll-out of the revamped Sentra, Altima and other models, it offered a conservative operating profit projection for the year that began this month of 880 billion yen ($7.68 billion).

That compared with a mean forecast of 906.5 billion yen by 20 analysts, and would be the smallest growth among Japan's top auto makers, according to consensus forecasts compiled by Reuters Estimates.

Rivals Toyota and Honda are expected to keep growing market share in the United States and Europe at the expense of local brands with the launch of new models such as the Camry sedan and CR-V crossover.