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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.
Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.
What if you'd invested in Sony (SONY) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to SONY for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?
Sony's Business In-Depth
With that in mind, let's take a look at Sony's main business drivers.
Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony Group Corporation (known as Sony Corporation till March 2021) designs, manufactures and sells several consumer and industrial electronic equipment. The company’s product roster comprises audio and video equipment, televisions, network services, game hardware and software, mobile phones and image sensors. Additionally, Sony is active in the production, acquisition and distribution of recorded music and the management and licensing of the words and music for songs.
In addition, Sony operates several financial services businesses that include banking operations and life and non-life insurance operations, both of which are managed by its Japanese subsidiaries. Sony Financial Group mainly focuses on insurance, banking and other operations primarily through Sony Life. Markedly, Sony Bank offers mortgage loans and foreign-currency deposits to consumers via online services. Also, the company has an advertising agency and a network services business in Japan.
In the first quarter of fiscal 2016, Sony realigned its business, which primarily involved repositioning of operations related to its All Other segment.
The company currently has six major reportable segments – G&NS (accounting for 32.8% of total operating revenues in fiscal 2023); Music (12.4%); Pictures (11.5%); Entertainment, Technology & Services (ET&S) (18.9%); Imaging & Sensing Solutions (I&SS) (12.3%); and Financial Services (12.1%).
(Note: Zacks identifies fiscal years by the month in which the fiscal year ends, while SONY identifies its fiscal year by the calendar year in which it begins; so comparable figures for any given fiscal year, as published by SONY, will refer to this same fiscal year as being the year before the same year, as identified by Zacks)
Bottom Line
Putting together a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of research, patience, and a little bit of risk. For Sony, if you bought shares a decade ago, you're likely feeling really good about your investment today.