Sony Corp.’s share price up, posts projection of an annual loss due to problems in the consumer electronics unit

Sony Corp. made an official statement today, revealing that it expects to post an annual loss in the year ending March 2015, the sixth in seven years. The announcement came quite unexpectedly, especially considering the fact that currently the companys CEO Kazuo Hirai is trying to restructure the company, in order to make it profitable again. The forecast loss was attributed to the problems in Sonys consumer electronics division.

One of the analysts working for Navigator Platform Co. Ltd – Yoshiharu Izumi – commented on the companys situation before the official statement was made: “Sony may want to exit from the TV business, but it does not have other home appliance products to cover it. The outlook is not rosy.”

According to the companys statement, Sony Corp. expects an annual net loss estimated to about 50 billion yen (490 million dollars) in the year ending March 31st. Such a result would be way lower than the analysts estimates of a 57.1-billion-yen profit, but it is still better than the 128.37-Japanese-yen loss posted a year ago. In addition, Sony Corp. said that it expects an operating profit of about 140 billion yen for the current financial year. This forecast also didnt meet the analysts expectations, which amounted to 231.8 billion yen.

The Chief Executive Officer of Sony Corp. has concentrated the companys efforts into dealing with the decreasing demand for personal computers and TVs, which were once the products that made Sony an iconic company on the Japanese market. Not only Mr. Kazuo Hirai reduced the last years net-income projection of the company three times, but he also cut about 5000 jobs and sold some of its assets.

After taking the position of Chief Executive Officer in 2012, Mr. Hirai shared his belief that the companys positions will be improved thanks to mobile devices, games development and imaging products.

Sony Corp. was 1.6% up to close at 1805 Japanese yen per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of -3.84%. According to the information published on the Financial Times, the 18 analysts offering 12-month price targets for Sony Corp. have a median target of 2,185, with a high estimate of 2,800 and a low estimate of 1,400. The median estimate represents a 22.34% increase from the last price of 1,786.