TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Sony Corp on Friday reported a nearly four-fold jump in third-quarter operating profit on growing demand for its image sensors, and raised its full-year earnings outlook.
The electronics firm posted an operating profit of 350.8 billion yen ($3.20 billion) for the October-December quarter, up from 92.4 billion yen a year ago. That was Sony’s highest third-quarter profit ever and far above a consensus estimate of 240.8 billion yen from 10 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Sony raised its profit forecast for the year ending March to 720 billion yen from 630 billion yen, its best ever in its 72-year-old history.
That compared with a consensus estimate of 680.93 billion yen from 23 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Earlier in the day, Sony said that CEO Kazuo Hirai would be replaced by CFO Kenichiro Yoshida, effective April 1.
(Reporting by Makiko Yamazaki; Editing by Himani Sarkar)
