The FINANCIAL — Sony Corp. swung to a fiscal second-quarter profit from a year-earlier loss on solid sales of its PlayStation 4 videogame console and image sensors, though the company maintained its outlook for the year, according to Nasdaq.
The electronics and entertainment company also raised its fiscal 2015 operating-profit outlook for its PlayStation arm and said it will ship more PS4 consoles than it previously expected during the year.
For the quarter ended Sept. 30, Sony swung to a profit of ¥ 33.6 billion ($278.2 million) from a year-earlier loss of ¥ 104.2 billion. In the year-earlier quarter, it wrote down the value of its smartphone business. Sales for the quarter were flat at ¥ 1.89 trillion and operating profit rose to ¥ 88 billion.
Analysts, on average, expected a net profit of ¥ 26.4 billion, ¥ 1.88 trillion in revenue and ¥ 82.2 billion in operating profit. For the year ending in March, the company continues to expect a net profit of ¥ 140 billion, which is below market expectations.
The results show that Sony’s turnaround still has momentum, after years of restructuring at its consumer electronics operations. While Sony’s smartphone operations continue to struggle, its entertainment arm has performed steadily— notwithstanding a data breach that shook its Hollywood studio last year.
Sony’s image sensors, used in the cameras in Apple Inc. iPhones and other smartphones, are fueling growth, while its PlayStation 4 videogame console continues to outsell Microsoft Corp.’sXbox One and Nintendo Co.’s Wii U.
Shares in Sony have jumped 40% since the beginning of the calendar year, far outstripping the benchmark Nikkei average’s 8% rise.
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