Sony (NYSE:SONY) Cut to Hold at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of Sony (NYSE:SONY) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Sunday morning.

SONY has been the topic of a number of other reports. Benchmark reissued a “buy” rating on shares of Sony in a research report on Monday, August 3rd. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d+)” rating on shares of Sony in a report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded shares of Sony from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating, one has issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Sony currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $22.00.

Sony Price Performance

SONY stock opened at $23.59 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $139.34 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.74 and a beta of 0.92. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.11, a quick ratio of 0.97 and a current ratio of 1.25. Sony has a 1 year low of $19.32 and a 1 year high of $30.34. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $21.49.

Sony (NYSE:SONY) last released its quarterly earnings results on Saturday, August 1st. The company reported $0.36 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.28 by $0.08. The firm had revenue of $17.45 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $17.17 billion. Sony had a positive return on equity of 13.06% and a negative net margin of 2.00%.Sony’s revenue for the quarter was up 8.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $42.84 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Sony will post 1.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Tsuyoshi Kodera sold 17,100 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, August 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $22.72, for a total value of $388,512.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider owned 47,508 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,079,381.76. The trade was a 26.47% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Also, insider Jonathan Jose Platt sold 16,512 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.08, for a total transaction of $348,072.96. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 83,326 shares in the company, valued at $1,756,512.08. The trade was a 16.54% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last three months, insiders have sold 1,350,065 shares of company stock worth $29,878,266. 7.00% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Fisher Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of Sony by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 108,981,588 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,789,929,000 after purchasing an additional 4,337,062 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership acquired a new position in Sony during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,998,000. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. bought a new position in Sony during the 4th quarter worth $47,989,000. UBS Group AG increased its position in Sony by 165.4% in the fourth quarter. UBS Group AG now owns 2,742,402 shares of the company’s stock worth $70,205,000 after buying an additional 1,709,003 shares during the period. Finally, WCM Investment Management LLC increased its position in Sony by 337.6% in the first quarter. WCM Investment Management LLC now owns 1,949,592 shares of the company’s stock worth $38,836,000 after buying an additional 1,504,035 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 14.05% of the company’s stock.

Sony Company Profile

Sony Group Corporation (NYSE: SONY) is a Japanese multinational conglomerate headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. Founded in 1946 by Masaru Ibuka and Akio Morita, Sony has grown from an electronics maker into a diversified global company with operations spanning consumer electronics, entertainment, gaming, semiconductors and financial services. The company’s shares trade in Japan and its American Depositary Receipts trade on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SONY.

Sony’s primary businesses include Electronics Products & Solutions, which covers televisions, audio equipment, digital cameras and professional broadcast systems; Game & Network Services, anchored by the PlayStation platform, consoles, software and online services; Music and Pictures, through Sony Music Entertainment and Sony Pictures Entertainment, producing, distributing and licensing recorded music, film and television content; Imaging & Sensing Solutions, which develops CMOS image sensors and other semiconductor components; and Financial Services, offering life insurance, banking and other financial products in Japan.