Sony Boosts Guidance as Profit Rises on Strength of Game, Music, Sensor Businesses — Update

By Kosaku Narioka

Sony Group raised its fiscal-year earnings forecasts after reporting higher first-quarter net profit on the strength of its game, music and imaging-sensor businesses.

The Japanese entertainment and electronics company said Wednesday that net profit climbed 6.5% from a year earlier to 231.64 billion yen, equivalent to $1.60 billion, for the three months ended June. That exceeded the estimate of Y214.30 billion in a poll of analysts by data provider Visible Alpha.

First-quarter revenue increased 1.6% to Y3.012 trillion.

For the year ending March 2025, it projected net profit to rise 1.0% to Y980 billion, compared with its previous view of a 4.7% drop, as it forecast higher operating profit for its game, music, movie and sensor businesses.

First-quarter operating profit from its game business climbed 33% to Y65.21 billion, that of its music business increased 17% to Y85.89 billion and that of its imaging and sensing business more than doubled to Y36.65 billion.

Sony has spent billions of dollars in acquisitions over the past few years to beef up entertainment content creation. Its entertainment businesses, such as games, music and movies, made up nearly 60% of overall revenue in the fiscal year ended March, up from about 30% a decade earlier.

Sony's film unit said in June that it had acquired Austin, Texas-based dine-in theater chain Alamo Drafthouse Cinema, coming as the U.S. movie industry grapples with how to encourage more consumers to go to the movies.

Write to Kosaku Narioka at kosaku.narioka@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

August 07, 2024 03:37 ET (07:37 GMT)

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