Sony (SONY) versus Its Rivals Critical Review

Sony (NYSE:SONY) is one of 150 public companies in the “Household Durables” industry, but how does it contrast to its peers? We will compare Sony to similar businesses based on the strength of its earnings, dividends, analyst recommendations, valuation, risk, institutional ownership and profitability.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and price targets for Sony and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
Sony	1	1	4	1	2.71
Sony Competitors	1715	7256	8030	298	2.40

Sony currently has a consensus target price of $22.00, indicating a potential downside of 6.13%. As a group, “Household Durables” companies have a potential upside of 42.92%. Given Sony’s peers higher probable upside, analysts plainly believe Sony has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Profitability

This table compares Sony and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
Sony	-2.00%	13.06%	5.22%
Sony Competitors	-21.11%	-14.39%	1.25%

Volatility & Risk

Sony has a beta of 0.92, meaning that its stock price is 8% less volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, Sony’s peers have a beta of 1.73, meaning that their average stock price is 73% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Institutional & Insider Ownership

14.1% of Sony shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 53.7% of shares of all “Household Durables” companies are owned by institutional investors. 7.0% of Sony shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 18.5% of shares of all “Household Durables” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that endowments, large money managers and hedge funds believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Earnings and Valuation

This table compares Sony and its peers revenue, earnings per share and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
Sony	$82.90 billion	-$2.16 billion	20.92
Sony Competitors	$5.32 billion	$322.27 million	25.84

Sony has higher revenue, but lower earnings than its peers. Sony is trading at a lower price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more affordable than other companies in its industry.

Dividends

Sony pays an annual dividend of $0.11 per share and has a dividend yield of 0.5%. Sony pays out 9.8% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Household Durables” companies pay a dividend yield of 4.3% and pay out 33.1% of their earnings in the form of a dividend.

Summary

Sony beats its peers on 8 of the 15 factors compared.

Sony Company Profile

Sony Group Corporation designs, develops, produces, and sells electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for the consumer, professional, and industrial markets in Japan, the United States, Europe, China, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company distributes software titles and add-on content through digital networks; network services related to game, video, and music content; and home gaming consoles, packaged and game software, and peripheral devices. It also develops, produces, markets, and distributes recorded music; publishes music; and produces and distributes animation titles, game applications, and various services for music and visual products. In addition, the company produces, acquires, and distributes live-action and animated motion pictures for theatrical release, as well as scripted and animated series, unscripted reality or light entertainment, daytime serials, game shows, television movies, and miniseries and other television programs; operation of television networks and direct-to-consumer streaming services; operates a visual effects and animation unit; and manages a studio facility. Further, it researches, develops, designs, produces, markets, distributes, sells, and services televisions, and video and sound products; interchangeable lens, as well as compact digital, and consumer and professional video cameras; projectors and medical equipment; mobile phones, accessories, and applications; and metal oxide semiconductor image sensors, charge-coupled devices, integration systems, and other semiconductors. Additionally, it offers Internet broadband network services; recording media, and storage media products; and life and non-life insurance, banking, and other services, as well as creates and distributes content for PCs and mobile phones. The company was formerly known as Sony Corporation and changed its name to Sony Group Corporation in April 2021. Sony Group Corporation was incorporated in 1946 and is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan.