Sony‘s (SNE) shares hit a five year high overnight in Tokyo. Odd for a company that appears to be struggling selling its new flagship game platform.
A Deutsche Securities analyst thinks that Sony will post a profit of $3.4 billion in the fiscal year starting this month. That would be a huge increase over the year just ended. Reuters is quoted as saying: "Sony will boost PS3 shipments this business year by about 67 percent to 10 million units, and should also benefit from higher production yields on semiconductors used in the game console and cost cuts", making reference to an article in a local Japanese newspaper.
Maybe. Maybe not.
Sales of the Playstation 3 dropped 82% from the first week it was on sale in England to the second. Sales of the console have also run behind the Microsoft (MSFT) 360 and Nintendo Wii in the US.
Sony shareholders may be taking the stock too high.
Douglas A. McIntyre