Sony posts 26% rise in Q1 operating profit on pandemic-led PS5 demand

TOKYO (Reuters) - Sony Corp on Wednesday reported a 26.3% rise in first-quarter operating profit, benefiting from lingering pandemic-led demand for its PlayStation 5 games console.

Operating profit for the quarter ended June 30 rose to 280.1 billion yen ($2.57 billion) from 221.7 billion yen a year earlier.

Ten analysts had expected a profit of 207.96 billion yen on average, according to Refinitiv.

Sony raised its profit forecast for the year through March 2022 to 980 billion yen from 930 billion. That prediction was lower than an analysts' average estimate of about 1 billion yen from 25 analysts.

($1 = 109.0400 yen)