Sony shares tumble on weaker-than-expected annual outlook

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Group Corp's shares fell as much as 4.8% on Monday after the Japanese electronics and entertainment conglomerate's annual profit outlook fell short of market expectations.

The company on Friday posted a record operating profit for the year ended March 2023, driven by a robust performance at its music and microchip units.

For the current business year, however, it projected a 3.2% profit decline to 1.17 trillion yen ($8.55 billion), missing an analysts average estimate of a 1.275 trillion yen profit, as it expects slow recovery in profitability in the videogame unit.

Jefferies analyst Atul Goyal said in a note to clients Sony's outlook "is overly conservative," and that its PlayStation 5 (PS5) game consoles and game software are likely to benefit from pent-up demand.

Sony had struggled to make enough PS5 to meet demand during the COVID-19 pandemic because of supply chain snarls, but President Hiroki Totoki said on Friday the company was now ready to deliver the consoles without keeping customers waiting.

The conglomerate aims to sell a record 25 million units of the PS5 in the year to next March.

($1 = 136.9000 yen)

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; editing by Uttaresh Venkateshwaran)