PS5 sales will pay for buyback plan

Article Excerpt

SONY GROUP CORP. ADRs $88 is a hold. The Japanese conglomerate (New York symbol SONY; Conservative Growth Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; ADRs outstanding: 1.2 billion; Market cap: $105.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 1.4; Dividend yield: 0.5%; TSINetwork Rating: Average; www.sony.com) continued to benefit from strong consumer demand for video games due to COVID-19 lockdowns. It sold 11.5 million units of its popular PlayStation 5 video game console in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2022. That’s up 47.4% from 7.8 million in 2021. It now expects sales will rise to 18 million units in fiscal 2023. Those strong sales will help fund Sony’s new plan to buy back $1.5 billion of its shares in 2023. However, ongoing lockdowns in China will probably increase the costs of chips and other components. Sony is a hold. hold…