Back to top

Image: Bigstock

Sony (SONY) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

Read MoreHide Full Article

Sony (SONY - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $84.85, moving +1.01% from the previous trading session. The stock lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 2.45%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 2.15%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 0.4%.

Heading into today, shares of the electronics and media company had lost 6.43% over the past month, outpacing the Consumer Discretionary sector's loss of 7.23% and lagging the S&P 500's loss of 5.71% in that time.

Investors will be hoping for strength from Sony as it approaches its next earnings release. In that report, analysts expect Sony to post earnings of $1.17 per share. This would mark a year-over-year decline of 24.52%. Meanwhile, our latest consensus estimate is calling for revenue of $18.7 billion, down 9.33% from the prior-year quarter.

SONY's full-year Zacks Consensus Estimates are calling for earnings of $6.28 per share and revenue of $92.93 billion. These results would represent year-over-year changes of 0% and +5.23%, respectively.

It is also important to note the recent changes to analyst estimates for Sony. These revisions help to show the ever-changing nature of near-term business trends. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which ranges from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has an impressive outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks generating an average annual return of +25% since 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 0.64% higher. Sony is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

Digging into valuation, Sony currently has a Forward P/E ratio of 13.38. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 11.07, which means Sony is trading at a premium to the group.

Meanwhile, SONY's PEG ratio is currently 2.79. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Audio Video Production was holding an average PEG ratio of 1.61 at yesterday's closing price.

The Audio Video Production industry is part of the Consumer Discretionary sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 208, putting it in the bottom 18% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


See More Zacks Research for These Tickers


Normally $25 each - click below to receive one report FREE:


Sony Corporation (SONY) - free report >>

Published in