Japanese entertainment giant Sony on Friday said it expects annual profit to rise as revenue from some business segments in the fourth quarter helped offset headwinds from a memory price crunch.
Here are Sony’s fourth-quarter results compared with LSEG estimates:
- Revenue: 3.036 trillion Japanese yen ($19.4 billion) compared to analyst estimates of 2.896 trillion yen.
- Operating profit: 164 billion yen compared to analyst estimates of 278 billion yen.
While hardware sales fell to 110 billion yen in the fourth quarter, compared to 183 billion yen in the same period last year, revenue was bolstered by strong performances in Sony’s image sensor and music businesses.
Total sales of the PlayStation 5 fell to 1.5 million units in the fourth quarter, down from 2.8 million a year ago.
Sony predicted that net profit for its upcoming financial year ending March 2027 will rise 13% to 1.16 trillion yen, compared to the 1.03 trillion yen profit it made this year.
The company also said it would buy back up to 500 billion yen in shares over the next year.
Shares in the company remained steady, with the stock trading down 0.5% as of market close on May 8.
Memory price surge
Sony is contending with an unprecedented surge in memory prices. Memory is a key component of the PS5 and prices have jumped significantly as memory makers direct their stock to huge demand from AI data centers, meaning supply remains limited.
In March, Sony said it would raise prices on its flagship PlayStation 5 consoles for the second time in under a year due to “pressures in the global economic landscape.”
The company said Friday it expects to contain the impact of memory price hikes on its 2026 forecast to around 30 billion yen. It also expects hardware profitability in its upcoming financial year to be the same as in the past 12 months.
“In Q4 FY25, the impact of memory market conditions gradually became more apparent in the smartphone market, especially in the low-end, but our mobile sensor sales exceeded our forecast, primarily due to strong shipments to our major customer,” Sony said in its earnings presentation.
It added that sales for the PS5 depend on its ability to secure reasonable prices of memory for the console.
Sony’s stock has fallen around 23% since the start of 2026, after yearly gains of more than 20% in each of the three preceding years.
Operating profit in the fourth quarter fell well below expectations as the company saw losses from its scrapped EV joint venture with Honda and its 2022 purchase of game developer Bungie resulted in impairments.
Sony forecast a slight drop in revenue for the upcoming financial year, predicting 12.3 trillion yen compared to 12.5 trillion yen the company hit this year.
