Sony (SNE) Stock Down Nearly 5%, PlayStation 5 Still on Track for 2020 Holiday Season

Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) stock has taken a sharp reversal after the company reported a huge drop in operating profit for the fourth quarter. At the time of reporting, it was trading at around $62.51 (-4.71%), and likely to continue falling. Essentially because its operations have been hampered by the ongoing coronavirus market disruption.

Despite being down slightly over 10% in the past three months, SNE stock is up over 26% than in the past year. It has recorded a 52 week low of $47.29 and a high of $73.86. Sony Corp stock has, however, recovered a significant amount of the loss it experienced during the beginning of the year, which saw it trade below $50.

Sony PS5 Underway

In a bid to keep its business afloat amid the coronavirus crisis, the company is rushing to keep the schedule it had promised to launch the PS5. “Regarding the launch of the PlayStation 5, although factors such as employees working from home and restrictions on international travel have presented some challenges in regards to part of the testing process and the qualification of production lines, development is progressing with the launch of the console scheduled for the 2020 holiday season,” the company said in a statement.

“At this point in time, major problems have not arisen in the game software development pipeline for Sony’s own first-party studios or its partners’ studios,” it added. Sony’s new flagship PlayStation 5 console is meant to be an upgrade of the predecessor PS4, which has been in the market for the past seven years. Once released into the market, the new gaming console is expected to revive the company’s sales, which drastically fell in its fiscal fourth quarter that ended on March 31.

Sony Stock Reacts to Poor Quarterly Report

Sony stock nosedived in the pre-market and after opening on Wednesday, May 13, and the company reported a 57% drop in operating profit to 35.4 billion Japanese Yen. The company attributed the fall to a decline in income from its gaming and consumer electronics divisions.

The company reported less operating profit in its gaming unit than expected at 46.2 billion yen for the last quarter. As a result of people staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic, the company added 2.7 million PS plus users in the quarter ended in March.

PS5 is expected to face stiff competition from Microsoft’s Xbox series X console that is to be released later in the year.