Japan-based Sony Corp. reported earnings for its fiscal fourth quarter on Friday that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for the entertainment and technology company.
The Sony Pictures filmed division, which includes the motion pictures business as well as TV production and media networks, reported a profit of $245 million for the fourth quarter, compared with $300 million in the year-earlier period. The division reported profit of $489 million for the full year, which was an improvement compared with previous year’s $376 million.
Sony’s year at the box office was boosted by the performances of “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” ($529 million), “Venom” ($855 million) and “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” ($374 million).
The Sony Pictures movie division recorded revenue of $1.1 billion for the three-month period ending in March, which was down from $1.4 billion during the same quarter in 2018.
The Sony Corp. parent company reported $8.0 billion in net profit for the quarter. Earnings per share were 62 cents, far above the 19 cents per-share earnings one analyst via Yahoo Finance had forecast. The company’s performance was improved after the 12-cents loss it reported a year ago.
Revenue amounted to $19.3 billion, above the $18.9 billion the sole analyst covering on Yahoo Finance expected.
For the full 2018 fiscal year Sony Corp reported earnings of $6.38 per share and revenue of $78.1 billion, both of which came in above analysts expectations.
Sony also reported that profit for its music division increased to $2.08 billion for the full fiscal year on higher streaming revenue as physical sales dipped.
The gaming and network services division saw profit climb to $2.79 billion for the year.