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Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Sony, Garmin Lower Outlooks for Rest of Year
By Donna Fuscaldo
FOXBusiness
Sony (SNE) and Garmin (GRMN) may not play in all of the same markets, but both companies have one thing in common: lower sales outlooks for the remainder of the year.
As the financial market turmoil continues to weigh on pretty much every industry, Sony and Garmin demonstrated that tech isn’t immune when reporting quarterly results earlier Wednesday.
For its fiscal second quarter, Hong Kong-based Sony reported a 72% decline in net profit and maintained its projection that annual net profit would decline 59%. Sony is suffering from a higher yen that’s reducing demand for its consumer electronic products, including flat screen TVs, digital camera, and videogame consoles. Last week, Sony warned its results in the second quarter would fall short of expectations.
Net profit in its fiscal second quarter came in at 20.8 billion yen from 73.7 billion yen a year ago. The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that at a news conference Sony’s Senior Vice President Naofumi Hara said, “Sony will just have to compete with better products. Year-end sales will be extremely tough for us.”
The latest second-quarter results were below the 25.1 billion-yen mean estimate of analysts, according to Thomson Reuters. Sony’s operating profit fell over 90% to 11 billion yen in the second quarter from 111.6 billion yen a year earlier. Revenue declined 0.5% to 2.07 trillion yen from 2.08 trillion yen in the same period a year ago.
Meanwhile Cayman Islands-based Garmin, which makes global positioning devices, reported a 12% decline in third quarter net income as its margins were impacted by the strengthening dollar in its international businesses.
For its third quarter Garmin posted net income of $171.2 million, or 82 cents a share, down from $193.5 million, or 88 cents a share, a year ago. Excluding currency exchange rates, earnings fell 87 cents from 89 cents a year ago. Revenue increased 19% to $870.3 million. Analysts, according to Thomson Reuters, had expected Garmin to weigh in with earnings of 84 cents a share and revenue of $866 million. Gross margins in the third quarter came in at 44.5% down from 46.9%.
For the remainder of the year, Garmin said it now expects earnings of $3.51 a share and revenue of $3.6 billion. In July it projected full year earnings of $3.86 a share and revenue of $3.9 billion.
“We are experiencing challenging macroeconomic conditions, yet Garmin’s products continued to attract consumers, generating revenue growth and allowing us to expand our global leadership position in the industry during the third quarter,” said Min Kao, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Garmin in a press release. “While most of our segments continue to grow, we are cognizant of the continued economic slowdown and business climate.”
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