Sony Corporation $SONY Shares Sold by Earnest Partners LLC

Key Points

• Earnest Partners LLC has reduced its stake in Sony Corporation by 14.4%, selling 14,022 shares and holding 83,341 shares worth $2,116,000 as of the end of the recent quarter.
• Several institutional investors, including Brighton Jones LLC and Barclays PLC, significantly increased their positions in Sony, with Barclays boosting its stake by 2,071% during the fourth quarter.
• Sony's stock is currently rated as a "Buy" by analysts, with an average target price set at $28.00, despite a recent downgrade from Wall Street Zen from "buy" to "hold."

Earnest Partners LLC trimmed its holdings in shares of Sony Corporation (NYSE:SONY - Free Report) by 14.4% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 83,341 shares of the company's stock after selling 14,022 shares during the quarter. Earnest Partners LLC's holdings in Sony were worth $2,116,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in SONY. Ieq Capital LLC grew its holdings in Sony by 39.4% in the 1st quarter. Ieq Capital LLC now owns 45,786 shares of the company's stock valued at $1,163,000 after buying an additional 12,949 shares in the last quarter. Synovus Financial Corp grew its stake in Sony by 11.7% during the 1st quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 281,443 shares of the company's stock worth $7,146,000 after buying an additional 29,548 shares during the last quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC grew its stake in Sony by 19.9% during the 1st quarter. ICONIQ Capital LLC now owns 34,571 shares of the company's stock worth $878,000 after buying an additional 5,748 shares during the last quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Sony by 11.0% in the 1st quarter. Smartleaf Asset Management LLC now owns 36,334 shares of the company's stock valued at $912,000 after purchasing an additional 3,607 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in shares of Sony by 14.4% in the 1st quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 81,092 shares of the company's stock valued at $2,059,000 after purchasing an additional 10,196 shares during the last quarter. 14.05% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Separately, Wall Street Zen cut Sony from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday, May 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and one has assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, Sony currently has an average rating of "Buy" and a consensus price target of $28.00.

Sony Stock Down 1.7%

NYSE SONY traded down $0.48 on Friday, hitting $27.52. 3,037,853 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,844,666. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $25.83 and a 200 day moving average of $25.16. Sony Corporation has a twelve month low of $17.42 and a twelve month high of $29.16. The company has a market capitalization of $166.43 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.84 and a beta of 0.94. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.16.

Sony (NYSE:SONY - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 7th. The company reported $0.30 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $0.24 by $0.06. Sony had a return on equity of 13.88% and a net margin of 9.14%.The business had revenue of $17.79 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $18.88 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $189.90 EPS. Sony has set its FY 2025 guidance at EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Sony Corporation will post 1.23 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Sony Profile

Sony Group Corporation designs, develops, produces, and sells electronic equipment, instruments, and devices for the consumer, professional, and industrial markets in Japan, the United States, Europe, China, the Asia-Pacific, and internationally. The company distributes software titles and add-on content through digital networks; network services related to game, video, and music content; and home gaming consoles, packaged and game software, and peripheral devices.