If You Invested $1,000 In Sony Stock One Year Ago, Here's How Much You'd Have Now

Investors who have owned stocks in the last year have generally experienced some big gains. In fact, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY total return over the last 12 months is 32.3%. But there is no question some big-name stocks performed better than others along the way.

Sony’s Big Run: One company that has been a great investment in the last year has been Japanese consumer electronics conglomerate Sony Group Corp SONY.

Sony has been a solid long-term investment, generating a total return of 142.1% over the past three years.

Like many other industries, the movie industry and consumer electronics industry were initially hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. As global economies started to open back up in 2021, Sony’s semiconductor business is now struggling with a global chip shortage.

However, Sony’s diversification also came up big during the pandemic. The company’s gaming, music and financial divisions all thrived during global economic shutdowns. The company even launched its highly anticipated PlayStation 5 gaming console in November 2020.

Sony’s gaming and network services division was its largest division in fiscal 2020, accounting for about 30% of total revenue. Financial services was a distant second at 19% followed by image sensing and solutions (semiconductors) at 12%. In the fiscal first quarter, Sony’s semiconductor business was its fastest-growing segment at 59% growth, while its gaming segment grew revenue by just 2%. Part of that relative weakness is because of production bottlenecks weighing on PlayStation sales, a temporary issue that could eventually create a tailwind in future quarters.

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At the beginning of 2020, Sony shares were trading at just $68.30. By the beginning of March, the stock was down to $63.60 as news of the coronavirus spreading in China prompted concerns about a U.S. pandemic.

When the market crashed during the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak in March, Sony shares dropped as low as $50.94 during the height of the pandemic fears.

When the market bounced in late March 2020, Sony began to rebound as well. In fact, the stock made it back up to pre-pandemic highs above $74 by July.

Sony hit $84.14 in August before a broad tech stock sell-off dragged it back down to as low as $72.45 in October 2020. At that point, the rally resumed ahead of the PlayStation 5 launch. Sony finished 2020 above $100.

Sony In 2021, Beyond: Sony shares hit new highs of $118.50 in February 2021 before spending the next eight months consolidating in a broad trading range of between around $95 and $115. In early November, Sony finally broke out to new highs, making it up to $125.43 earlier this week.

Sony investors who bought one year ago and held on have generated a nice return on their investment at this point. In fact, $1,000 in Sony stock bought on Nov. 17, 2020, would be worth about $1,386 today, assuming reinvested dividends.

Looking Ahead: Analysts are expecting Sony’s stock to maintain its bullish momentum in the next 12 months. The average price target among the 20 analysts covering the stock is $142.50, suggesting a 14.8% upside from current levels.

Photo by Nikita Kostrykin on Unsplash