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Here's How Much a $1000 Investment in Sony Made 10 Years Ago Would Be Worth Today

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For most investors, how much a stock's price changes over time is important. Not only can it impact your investment portfolio, but it can also help you compare investment results across sectors and industries.

Another thing that can drive investing is the fear of missing out, or FOMO. This particularly applies to tech giants and popular consumer-facing stocks.

What if you'd invested in Sony (SONY - Free Report) ten years ago? It may not have been easy to hold on to SONY for all that time, but if you did, how much would your investment be worth today?

Sony's Business In-Depth

With that in mind, let's take a look at Sony's main business drivers.

Headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, Sony Group Corporation (known as Sony Corporation till March 2021) designs, manufactures and sells several consumer and industrial electronic equipment. The company’s product roster comprises audio and video equipment, televisions, network services, game hardware and software, mobile phones and image sensors. Additionally, Sony is active in the production, acquisition and distribution of recorded music and the management and licensing of the words and music for songs.

In addition, Sony operates several financial services businesses that include banking operations and life and non-life insurance operations, both of which are managed by its Japanese subsidiaries. Sony Financial Group mainly focuses on insurance, banking and other operations primarily through Sony Life. Markedly, Sony Bank offers mortgage loans and foreign-currency deposits to consumers via online services. Also, the company has an advertising agency and a network services business in Japan.

In the first quarter of fiscal 2016, Sony realigned its business, which primarily involved repositioning of operations related to its All Other segment.

The company currently has six major reportable segments – G&NS (accounting for 32.8% of total operating revenues in fiscal 2023); Music (12.4%); Pictures (11.5%); Entertainment, Technology & Services (ET&S) (18.9%); Imaging & Sensing Solutions (I&SS) (12.3%); and Financial Services (12.1%).

(Note: Zacks identifies fiscal years by the month in which the fiscal year ends, while SONY identifies its fiscal year by the calendar year in which it begins; so comparable figures for any given fiscal year, as published by SONY, will refer to this same fiscal year as being the year before the same year, as identified by Zacks)

Bottom Line

Anyone can invest, but building a successful investment portfolio takes a combination of a few things: research, patience, and a little bit of risk. So, if you had invested in Sony a decade ago, you're probably feeling pretty good about your investment today.

A $1000 investment made in December 2014 would be worth $4,662.87, or a 366.29% gain, as of December 4, 2024, according to our calculations. Investors should note that this return excludes dividends but includes price increases.

Compare this to the S&P 500's rally of 191.65% and gold's return of 110.50% over the same time frame.

Going forward, analysts are expecting more upside for SONY.

Sony is gaining from demand across G&NS, Music and I&SS units amid softness in the financial services unit. The G&NS unit is benefiting from favorable forex impact, higher sales from network services (PlayStation Plus) and rising sales of non-first-party titles. Momentum in recorded music and music publishing sales is driving the Music unit’s performance. Strength in operating income is a plus. It has revised its revenue outlook for fiscal 2024 from ¥12,610 billion projected earlier to ¥12,710 billion due to the strengthening of the G&NS unit. Lower hardware sales and stiff rivalry are concerns. Demand for mobile sensors is likely to be affected due to changes in the production plan of a key customer. For fiscal 2024, sales for the I&SS unit are projected to be ¥1,770 billion from ¥1,850 billion estimated earlier

Over the past four weeks, shares have rallied 13.41%, and there have been 2 higher earnings estimate revisions in the past two months for fiscal 2024 compared to none lower. The consensus estimate has moved up as well.

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