Sony Stock Rises to Highest in Five Years

[Shin-Ra]

BBC News with the story -

Sony profit to rise 'sixfold'

Shares in Sony climbed to a five-year high on Friday after a newspaper predicted a sixfold increase in its profits for the current year.

Strong sales of the Playstation 3 could push Sony's pre-tax income to 400bn yen ($3.4bn; £1.7bn), a sharp increase on the 60bn yen expected for 2006.

Launching the next-generation console is expected to put a 200bn yen hole in Sony's finances.

Sony closed the session up 2.7% at 6,510 yen.

Demand

The world's second-largest electronics maker will also benefit from increased demand in its liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions in the US and European markets, according to the Nikkei business daily.
Analysts cited in the newspaper expected group sales in the year 2007-2008 would be up 6% to 8.7 trillion yen, boosted by a two-thirds increase in sales of LCD TVs to 10 million in 2007-2008. A 67% rise in PS3 shipments to 10 million units, better semi-conductor production yields and cost-cutting should also boost the business, according to the newspaper.

[Banjo]

That's quite something considering how bad of a year Sony had last year. There was like a 94% dive in profits last year.

[Blackraven]

Their BRAVIA line of HDTVs are "GOD" in the world of hi-definition televisions (not used as blasphemic in anyway).

BRAVIA FTW!!! (I don't think Pioneer or even Samsung or Sharp can come this close)

[JTK]

So you mean Sony isn't about to burn in the ground for the "overpriced" Ps3?!

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by JTK

So you mean Sony isn't about to burn in the ground for the "overpriced" Ps3?!

You mean that "expensive" 60GB PS3 system that outsold it's cheaper 20GB version 9 to 1 when consumers were given the choice.

That one

[Jim L]

If you look at my sig, you'll see that I've certainly done my share at increasing Sony's fortunes. (I think that at least 25% of BD collection is Sony SPHE too).

But I'm far from an outright blind Sony fanboy. I just tend to buy good quality for what I can afford. In several of their products they are the standard that everyone else is measured against.

Though Sony has had some financially rough times in recent years, they do make some incredible products and they have positioned themselves very nicely into gaming, music, and films.

I remember reading years ago, when they were strictly an electronics company, an article about Akio Norita (the former president of Sony). In it he basically said that it was very hard to make a long term profit in electronics. Everything eventually becomes a commodity, but content was where it was at. I'm so glad that Sony wised up years ago. They've still continued to innovate in entertainment. They make more profit in content now, but they continue to plow a lot of money into electronics R&D. A lot of what we enjoy now is due to Sony (CD, HDTV, digital imaging, etc.).

Microsoft is now trying to do what Sony did many years ago when they diversified.

[ps3andlovinit]

Originally Posted by Jim L

Microsoft is now trying to do what Sony did many years ago when they diversified.

Absolutely..the difference is Sony are engineers at heart so you get very high quality products and a lot of innovation..

The original Xbox was the case for MS as well..too bad for them they strayed from it's original promise and let the trash talking marketing bozos take over. They got a lot of things right with the original. They added very little with the 360 and hence no incentive for me to upgrade.

The PS3 delivered everything I thought the 360 was going to be and did it in a very high quality package. So not only did MS not deliver they delivered a very poor quality version of it. Still I would have considered a 360 at some point if the quality was increased..but..

..then they took their already abusive behaviors to a totally new level against the PS3 and Sony and they can kiss my money goodbye now... it's just unacceptable behavior and in the process they created a Linux convert, an Apple convert and we are about to pick up two more PSP's for our kids. Just waiting a bit to see if a PSP Lite is coming.

And more importantly we aren't going back to their stuff because of their *behavior* not the inferior technology.

[dobyblue]

Great article man, thanks for posting it.

There are some really misguided and misinformed HD DVD zealots out there in the world aren't there?

[Nismobeach]

TOKYO, April 13 (Reuters) - Sony Corp. will likely see its operating profit rise more than fivefold to 400 billion yen ($3.36 billion) this business year, helped by strong sales of LCD TVs and a recovery in its game division, the Nikkei business daily reported on Friday.

Sony's group sales are expected to rise 6 percent to 8.7 trillion yen in the year to March 2008, the newspaper said, citing a consensus forecast of analysts polled by its financial information service Quick.

Sony should enjoy increased demand for its liquid crystal display (LCD) televisions in the U.S. and European markets, the Nikkei said, noting that Sony planned to boost unit sales of LCD TVs by about two-thirds to 10 million in 2007/08.

But the biggest boost should come from its game division, which is expected to book an operating loss of 200 billion yen in the past business year due to costs related to the launch of the PlayStation 3 video game console, the Nikkei said.

Sony will boost PS3 shipments in 2007/08 by about 67 percent to 10 million units, and should also benefit from better semiconductor production yields and cost-cutting efforts, the newspaper said.

Sony will also not be burdened by heavy restructuring costs and expenses related to the recall of its lithium-ion batteries, which weighed down profitability in 2006/07, the Nikkei said.

The newspaper said Sony should be able to post a group operating profit of 400 billion yen in 2007/08, beating the market consensus of about 350 billion yen and a sharp improvement on the 60 billion yen expected for 2006/07.

A Sony spokeswoman said the company could not comment on earnings projections.

Twenty analysts polled by Reuters Estimates expect on average that Sony will earn a pretax profit of 381.9 billion yen in 2007/08 and a net profit of 295.0 billion yen.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/070412/3/308pe.html

Hmmmmm. I wonder what is driving their HDTV sales?

[SomethingForKate]

Originally Posted by Blackraven

Their BRAVIA line of HDTVs are "GOD" in the world of hi-definition televisions (not used as blasphemic in anyway).

BRAVIA FTW!!! (I don't think Pioneer or even Samsung or Sharp can come this close)

I have read all the reviews and am hearing all the praise for the Bravia range from Sony, who were very late to market with their LCD offering. But it is a joint venture with Samsung! So it surprises me that Samsung's offering is so poor?

Samsung's signiture LCD range seems to be targeting the lower-end of the market while Sony's is targeting the higher .... maybe this is deliberate after all?

SFK

[KenThompson]

I have been buying Sony tvs and electronics since early 80's. I have yet to be stuck with a lemon (Toshiba). I did however own a few betamax players. They were more than start up prices for Blu-ray machines, so I consider the BDP-s1 to be a bargain.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by KenThompson

I have been buying Sony tvs and electronics since early 80's. I have yet to be stuck with a lemon (Toshiba). I did however own a few betamax players. They were more than start up prices for Blu-ray machines, so I consider the BDP-s1 to be a bargain.

^^ Not that any of this stuff is cheap, but this post is an example of what it looks like when people actually have real experience and perspective when it comes to new technologies and early adopting.

[Shin-Ra]

It hasn't quite been five years since the last story but Sony shares are sky-high once again!

Sony shares reach 5-year high

[Gremal]

This probably has more to do with the market. Many companies (as well as the DOW and other indeces) have hit 5-yr and all-time highs. You can't necessarily tie that to any action of any companies but to the overall market.

[JTK]

Originally Posted by Shin-Ra

It hasn't quite been five years since the last story but Sony shares are sky-high once again!

Sony shares reach 5-year high

So I guess it isn't the end of the world for Sony with that "failure PS3" and "failure BD format" of theirs dragging them down, huh?

[GoldenRedux]

Originally Posted by JTK

So I guess it isn't the end of the world for Sony with that "failure PS3" and "failure BD format" of theirs dragging them down, huh?

teh skye is fallin'! oh nose!

[bluflu]

"The sky is falling"

Was it shaped like a stop sign or a HD DVD player? Toshiba's plan to drop HD DVD players from airplanes could already be in affect.

[blurayforever143]

but but..the Wii is number one...Sony sucks..the DS Lite is king...HD-DVD will win the format war!!!

Oh, god, this is too funny, the HD-DVD kids and Nintendo fanboys can whine all they want, the numbers say it all....I hope they're saving up their pennies because it's looking like the last two generations all over again.

[What'sHD]

A lot of tech stocks are rising yes, but SNE is running a little different from the NASDAQ. Check out http://finance.google.com/finance?q=SNE, use the 6 month option or 1 year and compare against NASDAQ using the drop-down.

[Greenmatiz2]

Wow... someone please tell me why people keep insisting that the PS3 has just about killed Sony????