Sony hits 2-year low on cooling smartphone demand

Bloomberg

Sony Corp. shares fell the most in almost two years after the electronics maker missed profit estimates and forecast weaker sales and operating profits across most of its business units.
The stock fell 6.1 percent to 5,073 yen on Tuesday in Tokyo, the biggest one-day drop since June 2016 and the first trading session after last week’s earnings. The move wiped out about $4 billion from the company’s market value, while volume was twice-as-high as the 180-day average.
Sales in the mobile, PlayStation, music, movies, and home-entertainment divisions are forecast to decline in the year to March 2019, the Tokyo-based company said in a statement Friday. Only cameras, chips and financial services were seen improving slightly. Operating profit will decline to 670 billion yen ($6.1 billion), below analysts’ prediction for 747 billion yen, according to the outlook.
Analysts expressed concerned over the Sony’s weak outlook for phone-camera chips, where it forecast a 39 percent decline in operating profit. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s JJ Park lowered the firm’s price
target for Sony to 5,200 yen from 5,400 yen, telling investors stay on the sidelines until shares finish adjusting to the weaker demand for smartphones.
“We expect Sony’s share price to follow the performance in Apple supply chain names, which have shown a meaningful correction,” Park, Ky Oh and Hisashi Moriyama wrote in a note to clients on Apr. 28, where they maintained their neutral rating on the stock.
“We recommend that investors find a better entry point after a share price correction.”
Tuesday’s decline brought the gap between analyst price targets and the actual price to the widest since March 2016, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Chief Executive Officer Kenichiro Yoshida needs to boost revenue by coming up with new products and services after five years of restructuring that he pushed through as chief financial officer with his predecessor, Kazuo Hirai. While the changes have left Sony on solid footing, the company remains vulnerable to any potential downturn given that it’s the top supplier for image sensors that go into the devices, including Apple Inc.’s iPhone.
Total operating profit was a record 735 billion yen for the year through March. Analysts were projecting, on average, 743 billion yen. Full-year sales rose 12 percent to 8.54 trillion yen.
“We’ve delivered on the promises we laid out and reached 500 billion yen profits in back-to-back years,” Sony CFO Hiroki Totoki said. “Given we’ve never before achieved that, that accomplishment weighs very heavily on our shoulders. But that’s why it’s very important to continue to properly earn stable profits.”
Cooling demand for smartphones across markets is hitting Sony on two fronts: less demand for mobile-camera chips and poor demand for Sony’s own models. The Xperia division recorded a writedown and forecast an operating loss of 15 billion yen in the coming year. The semiconductor unit will post a 39 percent decline in operating profit, Sony said, even though sales are seen climbing slightly.
“It’s not a great time for smartphones,” said Amir Anvarzadeh, senior strategist at Asymmetric Advisors in Singapore. “Sony has had phenomenal growth in the past few years, so it doesn’t take a genius to see that it will be harder to maintain from here on.”
Still, many investors remain optimistic, with Sony shares near ten-year highs. A Bloomberg analysis of share price data suggests that CFOs-turned-CEOs tend to perform well. “Yoshida-san understands the stock market very well,” said Masahiro Wakasugi, an analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence.