Sony Group Co. (NYSE:SONY) Short Interest Up 21.6% in February

Sony Group Co. (NYSE:SONY) was the target of a large increase in short interest in February. As of February 15th, there was short interest totalling 9,190,000 shares, an increase of 21.6% from the January 31st total of 7,560,000 shares. Approximately 0.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 3,630,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 2.5 days.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its stake in shares of Sony Group by 379.5% in the 4th quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 101,995,855 shares of the company’s stock valued at $2,158,232,000 after purchasing an additional 80,724,932 shares during the period. Aristotle Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sony Group by 393.7% in the 4th quarter. Aristotle Capital Management LLC now owns 52,771,882 shares of the company’s stock valued at $1,116,653,000 after purchasing an additional 42,083,842 shares during the period. Fisher Asset Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of Sony Group by 425.9% in the 4th quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC now owns 45,420,092 shares of the company’s stock valued at $961,089,000 after purchasing an additional 36,783,737 shares during the period. Bank of America Corp DE raised its stake in Sony Group by 377.7% during the 4th quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 23,804,970 shares of the company’s stock worth $503,713,000 after buying an additional 18,821,902 shares during the period. Finally, Fiduciary Management Inc. WI raised its stake in Sony Group by 377.2% during the 4th quarter. Fiduciary Management Inc. WI now owns 10,320,498 shares of the company’s stock worth $218,382,000 after buying an additional 8,157,776 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 14.05% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on SONY shares. Oppenheimer reissued an “outperform” rating and issued a $33.00 target price (up from $25.00) on shares of Sony Group in a report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com lowered Sony Group from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, February 25th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein assumed coverage on Sony Group in a research report on Thursday, January 16th. They set an “outperform” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating, three have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $28.00.

Sony Group Trading Up 0.4 %

SONY traded up $0.11 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $24.45. The stock had a trading volume of 6,194,770 shares, compared to its average volume of 3,653,730. The stock has a market capitalization of $147.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.84, a P/E/G ratio of 9.95 and a beta of 0.91. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.25, a quick ratio of 0.49 and a current ratio of 0.66. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $22.33 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $17.14. Sony Group has a 52 week low of $15.02 and a 52 week high of $25.64.

Sony Group (NYSE:SONY) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 13th. The company reported $0.41 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.27 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $28.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $24.32 billion. Sony Group had a return on equity of 14.10% and a net margin of 8.21%. On average, equities analysts predict that Sony Group will post 1.23 EPS for the current year.

Sony Group Company 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.