Sony Q3 operating profit up 9% but cuts forecast
Sony posted a surprisingly small rise in quarterly operating profit and cut its annual forecast by 9% on Thursday as tumbling markets eat into its investments and a stronger yen hurts overseas sales.
By Agencies |
TOKYO: Sony posted a surprisingly small rise in quarterly operating profit and cut its annual forecast by 9% on Thursday as tumbling markets eat into its investments and a stronger yen hurts overseas sales.
Sony enjoyed robust holiday demand for its Cyber-shot digital cameras, Handycam camcorders and Vaio personal computers, and managed to return its game division back to profitability by cutting PlayStation 3 production costs and boosting sales of its portable game machine.
But it lowered its forecast for operating profit in the year to March to 410 billion yen from 450 billion yen, citing the rising yen and the declining stock market, which has cut into the value of investments held by its life insurance unit.
The new forecast falls well short of the market consensus of 446.9 billion yen.Sony’s core electronics division saw its operating income fall 7% in the October-December quarter, also hurt by lower sales of semiconductors to the game division.
The companies operating profit for October-December came to 189.36 billion yen, up 5.9% from 178.91 billion yen in the same quarter a year earlier, though far below the average estimate of 245.5 billion yen from four analysis. On a net basis, profit rose 25% to 200.22 billion yen.
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Shares in Sony closed up 3.6% at 5,220 yen, outperforming the Tokyo stock market’s electrical machinery index, which rose 2.7%. Download
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